CC Academy
by CVan
Summary: Gohan goes to the illustrious boarding school, C.C. Academy, which is funded by our very own Dr. Bulma Briefs! At the moment he is stuck between Lime and Videl, but very soon he will have much greater problems to deal with.
1. Chapter 1: To Lands New and Far

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AN: Hey guys… this is my first fic. I've been reading all these G/V fics on this site, and I think I'm like addicted to some of them, so I figured I'd write my own! I'd really appreciate any reviews. I'll be sure to consider any criticism you have, but like I said, this is my first one, so go easy.

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C.C. Academy **

Chapter 1: To Lands New and Far

If anyone had happened to take a nice, relaxing flight over the 439 mountain district in mid-august, they would have been greeted with a fairly extraordinary sight. A dark haired boy could be seen floating among the clouds with a joyful expression lighting up his fair complexion. He seemed to be completely at ease, while pleasantly basking in the sunlight and swinging lightly back and forth with the wind. Then: suddenly, as if some sort of alarm clock had gone off in his head, his eyes snapped wide open. A blur of red, blue, and gold could be seen speeding towards him on the horizon.

"Gohan!" screamed the blur, careening towards him. He spun to the side quickly to avoid being hit by it, and the spiky-haired passenger went flying through the air as a golden cloud pulled up short right next to Gohan's confused face.

"Goten!" he cried out in shock, forgetting that he could fly to catch his rapidly descending brother.

As he watched in horror, his 5 year old (AN: yeah… Goten is 5 which would make Gohan about 16) brother flew straight towards a pointy mountain peak. Right before impact, however, the fluffy golden nimbus cloud intercepted him and they made their way back towards Gohan.

"Hey Gohan! How did you like the new trick I taught nimbus?" chirped the bouncing child to his relieved older brother.

"Trick?" questioned Gohan, staring at his brother's perpetually gleeful face.

"Yeah, I call it play… ummmm… dead."

"Goten… I think that name might have been taken already" replied Gohan, sweat drop forming on the back of his head. 'Now that I think of it, I doubt a small 500 foot drop would faze him that much anyway...'

"Oh… well I'll just think up a new one then. Hmmmmmm." The young boy placed a finger on his chin and looked towards the sky in what could be mistaken for a thoughtful manner.

"So did you come all the way up here just to show me that?" asked Gohan.

"Oh yeah! I forgot. Mommy told me that you have to come home for lunch. And she said that she had something special to tell you too. And there was something else… yeah, now I remember. She said that you better have gotten her groceries like she told you to or she'd hit you in the head with the frying pan again."

Fortunately- Gohan, being the momma's boy that he was, had picked up the groceries as his mother had asked. Unfortunately, he had left them on the ground, and it looked like a few forest "critters" (most likely meaning a T-Rex or a saber-toothed tiger) had taken an interest in some of the more fragrant items he had picked up. Shivering with fear at the thought of his mother's frying pan of doom making contact with his head; Gohan blasted down quickly out of the sky, picked up the groceries before they became lunch meat for a wandering dinosaur, and flew home at top speed. Goten watched him fly away before he was reminded by a rumble in his stomach that it was lunch time. At this point he sped off after Gohan on the flying nimbus.

* * *

Chichi sighed while she thought about how she was going to tell Gohan about the newest adventure in their lives. 'I'm not quite sure how he's going to take it… we've always stayed together as a family, especially since Goku died. What am I worrying about him for? What will I do with out my baby around all the time? I don't think I'd be able to bear being apart from him if Goten hadn't been born.' As she wandered about the kitchen, her two sons burst through the door and slid to a stop in front of the table. 

"So… I see you brought my groceries. You're safe… for now."

Gohan chuckled, looking slightly worried at this statement, until he sniffed, and the sweet aroma of his mother's home cooking made him forget his fear.

"So can we eat now?"

Chichi glanced at him. She decided it would be better to tell him after he had eaten. It would probably be best if he was actually paying attention to her instead of drooling over the food while they talked. She gave them a slight nod, and within seconds, the two demi-saiyans were throwing food unceremoniously from the beautifully prepared dishes into their seemingly endless stomachs. The food barely paused in their mouths to be processed, and then gave way to the next morsel. Chichi turned away, as she had learned to do long ago during meal times. Both of her boys had inherited her husband's abnormal appetite, yet she was still far from used to it even now. It was always surprising to her how they managed to eat more than a roomful of people without becoming obese like that slob Yajerobi. She glanced back up at the table a few minutes later, and noticed that they were winding down, and the table was almost completely empty, excluding the plates themselves.

"So mom, Goten said you had something to tell me?" Gohan exclaimed after burping loudly and patting his stomach contentedly.

"Yes I do. I've been thinking about this for a while, and I think it would be the best thing for you to do at this stage in your life." Chichi replied, ignoring the lack of manners coming from her oldest son. "I've had you home schooled for quite some time now, and I've been noticing lately how lonely you seem. You spend all your free time floating among the clouds, or training, and you've never been around kids your own age. Besides this, I believe it will be easier for you to be accepted into a prestigious college if you attend an actual high school."

"Wha…?" Gohan managed to get out while staring at his mother in a confused manner. He wasn't sure whether to be happy or not. He had rarely had any interaction with people his own age, as his mother had pointed out, and he didn't know how they would react to some one like him, who had been living on a mountain for his whole life. On the other hand, he'd have the chance to make some new friends, something he had been thinking about more and more lately. Seeing that he couldn't decide, he just resigned himself to going along with whatever his mother had planned. That didn't stop him from being curious as to what exactly she was planning though.

"So where would I be going to school?" he asked cautiously, trying to stay on his mother's good side, since they were in the vicinity of many unique styles of frying pans.

"Well, recently Bulma was telling me how she had funded the construction of a new boarding school that she so modestly made them name Capsule Corp. Academy. Since she put so much money into it, it is run by some of topmost scholars around the world. It has a great reputation among colleges, and it would probably help your chances of getting into any college you want. All you have to do is score high enough on the entrance exam, which shouldn't be too hard. If you can't even get a good score on some silly high school entrance exam, I don't know what I've been teaching you."

"But mom, if it's a boarding school, wouldn't that mean I'd have to live there?" he asked, knowing full well that his mom had become sort of OCD about her sons' whereabouts after Piccolo had "kidnapped" him all those years ago.

"Yes dear, I'm afraid so. I know that we'll all have a hard time adjusting at first, but I'm sure it will be a good experience for you. Any way, I know that I'll have to let you go someday anyway. This will be good practice." She uttered this sentence without crying only because she knew he wouldn't leave if she couldn't even talk about him leaving without breaking into tears.

Gohan noticed the sad look on his mother's face, but he still couldn't help getting a little excited about this new adventure. He could finally make some friends that weren't twice his age, or for that matter, his brother's age. Anyway… it wasn't like he'd never see his family again. "Well... it sounds like a good idea to me. But cheer up. It's not like I'd be leaving for good. I could come back and visit anytime I want. Even if it was halfway around the world the trip wouldn't take too long by air."

"Well that's good, because it is practically halfway around the world. And you'd better come back and visit mister! How would you feel if your poor mother was left to fend for her self with that monster to feed every day?"

"Hey!" yelled Goten from outside. He had gotten bored of their conversation a while ago and was currently "playing" with some poor, unlucky dinosaur behind the house.

"I'm just kidding dear… well- I'd better get started on some of the house work. These dishes aren't going to clean themselves. You'd better go on up and get started studying for that entrance exam. School starts up in a couple of weeks, and I expect you to be fully prepared by then."

"Okay mom… I'll be up in my room." replied Gohan, running up the stairs to avoid any confrontations with the deadly pan of doom in the near future.

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A couple of weeks later, Gohan were packing his things. He had obviously aced the entrance exam, considering he was basically a genius. As Gohan looked around his room, he found nothing else that he needed, so he backed out into the hallway and took his bag into the living room, where he found his mother and Bulma waiting for him. 

"Hey Gohan!"

"Hi Bulma, what brings you here?"

"Well… Chichi told me that you were attending MY school this year, so I thought I'd bring some things that you might find useful." she replied.

"Oh Bulma, you didn't have to." he told her.

"I know, but you'll be glad I did. I realized that you'd be staying over there with no one to cook for you, and I thought it'd be a good idea if you didn't eat all the food in the school cafeterias everyday. Sooooo… I took the liberty to make this." she said, handing him a capsule and a large bag. "The capsule contains a sort of auto-cooking stove. You just toss the other capsules that I put in the bag onto the stove and it should cook them for you. If you ever run out just send me a message and I'll mail you some extras." she told him with a smug sort of smirk.

"Wow! Thanks Bulma! I was wondering how I was going to eat. I was actually thinking of coming back here every few days to pick up food." he exclaimed with gratitude. "This'll save me a lot of time. Well, I guess I should be going now."

"Wait dear." Chichi's voice called from behind him. "I want you to take these too." she told him, handing him a family photo and a red stick.

"Thanks mom, but why are you giving me the power pole?" he asked curiously.

"I just thought you should have something of your father's with you. Now make sure you learn a lot. No horsing around mister! I expect perfect grades on that report card when it comes back. And don't forget to visit!" she called out as she pushed him out the door while looking the other way so he wouldn't see her cry.

"I won't mom! Bye Mom! Bye Goten! Bye Bulma!" he yelled as he flew away from the only home he had ever known in his entire life.

As Gohan started to reach the city limits, he started to descend. He had decided to take a bus to the school, so as not to attract any attention by randomly showing up out of nowhere. Since he lived basically in the middle of nowhere, he had to fly to the nearest city to take the bus from there. Apparently the closest city was some place named Satan City. 'I hope this doesn't have anything to do with that big oaf who every one thinks defeated Cell.'

Sadly, he was wrong, but he'd find that out soon enough. He dropped quickly onto the sidewalk upon reaching the outer limits, and followed the directions to Orange Star High School, which was where the bus left from. When he got there, he noticed that he seemed to be the last one to arrive, because the small bus was almost packed. He walked up the aisle hesitantly, unable to find an open seat. He started to get nervous, because everyone was looking at him and there was nowhere to sit.

He was starting to get uncomfortable when someone called "Hey new boy! There's a seat open over here!" He turned around to see a pretty blonde girl waving at him, pointing to a seat across the aisle from her next to a dark haired girl. He looked at this girl, who looked mildly interested in him, until their eyes met and she hastily turned away. He made his way over to the seat, thanked the blonde girl, then turned around and asked the other girl politely, "Hello, is this seat taken?"

The girl looked at him for a second, and then snapped, "Obviously it's not, or she wouldn't have said it was open."

Gohan didn't want to get anyone angry, so he just said, "Oh." Then he placed his bag in the overhead compartment and sat down.

"So what's your name, cutie?" asked the blonde girl, leaning on her armrest and staring at him openly.

"Umm… my name is Gohan" he replied quietly, while trying to pretend he hadn't heard that last part.

"Well hi! My name's Erasa, and this is Sharpener," she said, pointing to a muscular looking guy behind her, "and that's Videl." she finished; pointing to the girl Gohan was sitting next to. "So this is your first year at C.C.?" she asked him. "That's cool, where are you transferring from?" she continued, as he nodded affirmatively.

"Well… I'm not transferring from anywhere. I've been home schooled for basically my whole life."

"Wow. That doesn't sound like much fun! Where do you live, anyway? I've never seen you around this neighborhood before."

"Well… I live in the 439 mountain district." he replied, knowing full well that this would lead to a bunch of other questions.

"Huh? Where is that?"

Gohan explained where he lived by pointing out a number of landmarks near his house. After a few minutes she realized where he must be talking about.

"What!" she screamed out loud. By this time the bus had started moving, and upon hearing this scream the bus driver stopped in the middle of the street and everyone turned to look at Erasa. "Oh… sorry." she said sheepishly, hiding behind the seat in front of her. Once the bus driver and everyone else had turned around, she whispered to Gohan, "Why do you live so far out in the wilderness? Does anyone else even live out there?"

"Well, not that I know of. I think my family and I are pretty much alone up there."

"Wow... that's so like weird. What do you do for fun up there?"

Gohan hesitated here. He couldn't very well say that his hobbies included flying on fluffy golden clouds, or blowing up mountains. After a few seconds he decided on a little bit of the truth.

"Umm… I don't know. I like to practice martial arts, and read. I guess most of the time I'm stuck studying. My mom doesn't really let me have that much free time."

"Wow, you do martial arts? You and Videl here will get along great. Fighting is practically all she does. Hey, guess who her dad is. I bet even you'll know him. He's the world champ! Mr. Satan! Right, Videl?"

While looking the other way, Videl rolled her eyes. "What did you say?" she asked, pretending that she hadn't been listening to the whole conversation.

Erasa answered, "Well Gohan here was telling me that he liked to practice martial arts and-" at this point Sharpener interrupted her.

"Ha… like that nerd practices martial arts. He looks too wimpy to be any good."

"What do you know Sharpener? I bet he could kick your ass. Not that that's worth anything." Videl snapped at the blonde jock sharply. She said this, and then thought to herself 'Why did I just do that? What do I care about this new kid?'

Gohan looked at her, also surprised that she would stick up for him. She noticed him look and took the opportunity to ask him, "So you really practice martial arts? Maybe we could spar sometime. I'd like to see how good you are."

At this, Gohan mumbled, "Sure." He had noticed that her power level was extraordinarily high for a human. He only knew a few people who could boast of a higher one who weren't androids or aliens. Even with that in mind, he didn't want to hurt her, so he hoped she would forget about that spar he had just promised her. "Great! We can go to the gym at C.C. after we all get settled in." Fat chance of that happening.

"Well speaking of C.C., we're here so I suggest that you all get up and get your bags." Erasa huffed, angry that they had cut her off and then proceeded to ignore her for the past few minutes.

"What was that about?" Gohan asked Videl.

"I don't really know. She just gets mad for no reason sometimes."

"Oh."

They both shrugged and walked off the bus and through the front gates together.

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AN: Hey guys, I know it's not that original, but it's just the first chapter. I'm just starting it out slow. It'll get better (hopefully) next chapter. Oh yeah… and just to tell you. I'm probably going to have some sort of "gold fighter" in this, but Saiyaman is a no-no. I think he just makes Gohan look like an asshole… so I'm going to leave him out. Anyway, please R&R. 

Next time: Gohan gets settled into his new co-ed gasp shock gasp dorm. How will he handle his surprising new roommate, not to mention his upcoming "fight" with Videl? Find out next time on… -key in catchy theme music- C.C. Academy!

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	2. Chapter 2: A Pleasant Surprise

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AN: Ok… so like I said, at least the first few updates will come pretty fast. As always I appreciate any reviews, and I have nothing left to say here really, so here's the chapter.

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Chapter 2: A Pleasant Surprise

As Gohan walked through the front gates beside Videl, he couldn't help but feel a tingle of excitement. He looked around in wonder at the numerous school buildings. He saw some robots at work outside that even he had never seen before. 'I guess Bulma came out with a new model recently.' He could tell that this was going to be a good year.

After walking around for a while, with Videl pointing out a few places of interest, they reached the location of their dorm rooms. All the juniors had dorms in the same area, so Gohan's dorm was in the same vicinity. In fact, as he figured out when they reached his dorm, Videl's was right across the hall. When Videl saw this, her small smile increased subconsciously. She had taken a liking to Gohan over the past hour or so. She didn't usually warm up to someone so fast. 'It's nothing… he's just a nice guy. That's all.' she tried to tell herself.

Sharpener and Erasa had to go a little farther to get to their dorms, so they said bye to Gohan and Videl and kept going down the hallway. Videl took her bags into her room and placed them on her bed as Gohan strolled around the hallway, noting the comfortable "living room" type area at the end of the hallway. It was fully equipped with a refrigerator, T.V., some video games, plush leather couches, and a nice little bar set. 'Wow… Bulma sure did do a good job on this place. I wonder how much building this whole school actually cost her.'

"Hey Gohan." Videl's voice broke him from his thoughts. "Let's go see what your dorm looks like.

He turned around. "Sure, Videl." He noticed that she had taken the opportunity to change out of her other clothes and into her school uniform. It had a nice white and blue top with a relatively short skirt for a school uniform. It only enhanced the beauty that he had noticed on the bus, although he had been trying to ignore it for the past hour.

Videl noticed him looking. "Yeah… I hate these uniforms. We have to wear them everyday except Friday. Oh well… come on, let's see what you've got in here."

She walked into the room with Gohan behind her. "… Wha?" stuttered Videl. Gohan groaned as he walked in. It appeared that Bulma had taken it upon herself to decorate his room for him, and she had gone all out. Now that he thought about it, the common room was nothing compared to his room. He could have started an electronics store with all the things she had installed in his room. 'Well… I guess at least I'll have something to do when ever I'm in here.' he thought, looking at the huge entertainment system.

"Gohan… what is all this stuff?" Videl managed to get out while spinning around, taking in all the high-tech gadgetry around the room.

"I don't know… I guess my mom sent it over." he lied.

"Wow… she must be crazy. But who cares? This is awesome. It's even better than my room back home. I'm going to have to come over here more often." Videl replied in wonder.

"Yeah… sure." Gohan chuckled, moving over to the closet. A bunch of neatly packed school uniforms just like Videl's (except in a guy's style) lined the wall.

As he inspected the uniforms, Videl noticed that if she pressed a red button on the bed side table, another bed slid out. If she pressed the green one, the bottom bed slid in. There was a ladder on the side of the wall that allowed the person on top to get up to their bed.

"Hey Gohan, you didn't tell me you had a roommate."

"What makes you think I do?"

"Well there are two beds here."

"Oh… well my mom did the paperwork. I guess she signed me up for a room with a roommate. Do you have one?"

"Nah… I like my privacy."

"Yeah, me too, but at least it'll be interesting to see who my roommate is."

"I guess so. Come on, I'll show you my room."

"Okay. Hold on." Gohan replied, throwing his shirt back on the stack. This knocked over the pile, and had he stayed, he would have seen the pile of dresses similar to those that Videl was wearing folded behind his own clothes.

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After checking out Videl's room, which was obviously nowhere near as cool as Gohan's was, the two headed out to look for Erasa and Sharpener. Since it was the first day, classes started after lunch, so they had plenty of time to spare. 

They walked for a while until they heard a voice from behind them. "Are you still hanging out with nerd boy, Videl?"

"Well… only because you weren't here for me to beat the hell out of." she replied, rolling her eyes at Gohan.

"Hey, Hey. No need for such hostility. I was just kidding." Sharpener answered, not sounding like he really meant the last part.

"Wow… hostility. That's like… oh my god… nine letters Sharpener! Good Job!"

"I'm not stupid…" Sharpener grumbled as he and Erasa caught up to them.

"And neither is Gohan apparently. I heard two teachers talking about you as I was going to my room." She said, poking Gohan on the nose, and then slipping her arm under his. "Gohan here apparently got perfect scores on the entrance exam guys."

"Really? Wow Gohan, you must be pretty smart." Videl addressed him, forgetting that moments before she had been giving her best friend a death glare at her show of affection for Gohan.

"Hehe… not really." Gohan answered, flashing his son grin and rubbing the back of his neck with the hand that Erasa wasn't coiled around.

"Hey… cute, smart and modest. This one's a catch, huh Videl? Erasa laughed as Gohan's face turned bright red.

Sharpener saved Videl from having to answer by snorting and crossing his arms over his chest. "Spare me."

"Don't be jealous, Sharpener."

"Yeah right, Erasa. Me; jealous of him. That's going to happen."

"Whatever, Sharpener." Videl cut in, forcing Sharpener to huff and turn his head the other way.

"You know, the only reason I'd ever be jealous-" he started; only to be cut off by Erasa's squeal.

"OH MY GOD! KARAOKE!" she screamed, running over to a karaoke booth that she had seen near the side of what Gohan assumed to be the gym entrance.

The others followed her reluctantly as she dragged Sharpener on the stage. A crowd began to gather around as they heard the music blaring from the karaoke booth. By the end of their song, a rather large crowd surrounded the stage.

"Hey Videl! Why don't you and Gohan come up and do a song?" Erasa called across the stage.

Videl blatantly refused, but the blonde kept asking her until she finally gave in. She couldn't resist that stupid puppy dog look. "So… what do you say, Gohan?

Gohan waved his hands across his chest. "No Way! Not in front of all these people! I think I'm going to head back and see if my roommate has stopped by yet." he said hastily.

"Umm… okay," replied Videl, slightly disappointed that he didn't want to sing with her. "We'll drop by later so Erasa and Sharpener can see how cool your room is.

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Gohan slipped the key card he had been given into the slot near the doorknob, and then re-entered his room for the second time that day. Amazingly, he was even more surprised this time then he had been upon entering the room the first time. It looked like St. Patrick had broken in and had a field day (AN: Haha… it's St. Patrick's Day right now). On one complete side of the room was covered with every shade of green that he had ever seen before. He stepped into the room and stopped short with his eyes wide open.

Across the room, stepping out of the bathroom was a very attractive girl, with nothing on but a towel on. He watched stupidly, as she closed the door behind her, and almost drooled as he followed the small drops of water rolling down her back with his eyes. Oddly enough, his genius I.Q. was not enough to alert him to the fact that this girl, whoever she was, would not appreciate him staring at her while she was half naked.

"AHHHH!" she screamed, holding her arms over her chest, although she was technically covered.

Her shriek brought Gohan back to his senses. He turned around and covered his eyes, stuttering "I –Ii- I'm Sorry!"

The sight of him cowering in the corner was quite amusing, but it didn't completely cure her anger. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?"

Gohan half-turned around, and then turned back hastily, remembering why he was looking the other way in the first place. "This is my… room?" he stated somewhat hesitantly, not wanting to provoke anymore of that ear-splitting racket that caused his acute saiyan hearing so much pain.

A sweat drop rolled down the back of the girl's neck, since at this point, Gohan was in a near fetal position; he had obviously forgotten that not all girls were equipped with frying pans like his mother. She chuckled hesitantly, and asked: "It is? So I guess you're my new roommate."

She slipped on some underwear and a long t shirt that she found in her suitcase and looked over at his quivering figure. Sigh… "You can open your eyes now…"

Gohan opened his eyes slowly, and saw a girl with light brown hair staring back at him with somewhat of an amused expression on her face. He immediately noticed that she wasn't wearing any pants, but decided not to say anything out of fear that he would offend her.

"Wow… you must be pretty whipped if you hide in a corner like that every time a woman yells at you. Your girlfriend must be pretty rough." She noted that despite his lack of tact, he was fairly handsome, even though he was wearing what looked like extremely baggy clothing. 'We'll just have to get rid of those.' She thought, with an evil smirk forming on her face.

Gohan saw the smirk, and started to get worried. He hoped he was just seeing things, but you never know… "Ummm… I don't have a girlfriend." he replied.

"Oh," -'that's a plus'- "Well I find that hard to believe, but anyway… I'm Lime. And you must be…" She looked at a name engraved on his suitcase. "Gohan? That's odd… I used to know a boy named Gohan. But you can't be him… he had blonde hair…" She started mumbling to herself.

Gohan looked at her in disbelief. He too had known a girl named Lime. He had not forgotten her, because he didn't really know that many people that were his age. 'What? That can't be that same girl I met before the cell games… She was loud –oh wait, that fits. I don't remember her looking like THAT? Well… I guess people can change a lot in five years. I wonder if I should tell her that I was that kid. Maybe I'll just wait for a while. I'm sure I'll figure out what to do eventually.'

As Gohan sorted through his thoughts, Lime had come to a conclusion. "You know, you do look kind of familiar. Would you happen to be that boy I met all that time ago?"

Gohan didn't know what to do here, so he resorted back to the patented son family grin and replied, "Ummmm… I'm not sure I know what you're talking about."

"Oh… hey! Wait just a minute! I remember that stupid grin. And you're still a pervert too! I knew it was you!"

Gohan nearly face faulted. Stupid grin… what was he going to do now? But… wait… "Hey! I'm not a pervert… I thought we set that straight!"

"So you're saying it WAS you. I knew it! I knew it!" she started to sing.

Gohan really did face fault this time. How could he have been so stupid? Damn teenage girls and their stupid logic…

"So… it was you. And I remember now. I saw you on T.V. at the cell games. And I thought…" She stared at him for a second, and her eyes seemed to glitter. "It was you, wasn't it? You were the one who finally defeated Cell, weren't you?" She looked at his face and got all the information she needed to know from his expression.

"I knew it!" Suddenly her smile faltered. "But why didn't you come and visit stupid! I thought you said I was your friend?" While she said this she walked towards him, hitting him a few times (although by now she had realized that it wouldn't really hurt him).

Gohan kept backing up. "I'm sorry… I guess I kind of forgot about you for a while (She hits him again, and he stops moving) … after my dad died." At this a pained expression clouded his face for a few seconds. "But I'm really sorry; I still should have come back and visited."

Apparently this was too much for her to take. She stepped back and looked at his face, then burst out crying. "Oh Gohan! You shouldn't be sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so stupid. Here I am yelling at you, when you saved my grandfather; when you saved all of us." She suddenly hugged him and started crying on his chest. Out of surprise, he stepped back again and tripped over a certain red stick and both of them fell onto the bed. 'Stupid power pole…'

Lime didn't seem to have noticed that they had landed on the bed. She continued to cry into his chest, and he tried to console her, but nothing seemed to get through. In the end, he resigned himself to waiting for her to stop. He leaned back against his pillow, and felt pretty comfortable with her just lying there on top of him. After a while, he looked at her, and she appeared to be done. Her green eyes looked back at him curiously.

"So Gohan, why is your hair black now?" she asked as she reached out to touch it, as if to make sure it was real.

"Well, it's this thing I can do. I sort of power up, then my hair turns yellow like that." he replied. He didn't want to give too much away yet, maybe he'd tell her the whole truth some other time.

"That's so cool… can you do it now?" she asked.

"Err… I don't think so. I don't want to break anything in here."

"It would do that? Wow. You'll have to show me some other time then."

"Ummm sure… but Lime?"

"Yes?"

"You know that no one knows that I beat Cell, right? And I don't want them to either. Same goes for the golden hair thing. Promise not to tell anyone?"

"Sure, it'll be our little secret." She moved a little closer to him and propped her head up with one of her hands. "So… what do you want to do now?" she asked with a smirk, winking suggestively.

"Hehehe… I don't know…" Gohan said, blushing and accidentally banging his head against the head board as he backed up.

Lime rolled her eyes at this. "You're like a little kid, Gohan. I was just kidding…" he sighed in relief. "Sort of…" she mumbled under her breath, unaware that he could hear her. He chuckled nervously.

"Well, I guess we should probably get up now. It has to be at least 10:30. Class will start soon." she said reluctantly, looking out the window. "But first, I just remembered that I never actually said thank you for what you did all those years ago. So thank you." she said sincerely, giving him a light kiss on the cheek. She then moved her head back to look at his face, and found that he was no longer blushing.

"You're welcome." he replied, looking back at her. They stayed there for a moment, unmoving, until Gohan heard the door open.

* * *

"Hey Gohan? You in here?" he heard Videl's voice call out as they walked in. The three of them froze in place as they took in the scene in front of them. Ignoring the neon green decorations floating around everywhere, and the amazingly high tech condition of the room –which Videl had already seen, they all stared at Gohan. He was leaning back on the bed, with a girl lying on top of him. The girl was wearing no pants, and it looked like they were about to kiss.

Videl broke the silence first. "So this is why you didn't want to sing with me…" she said, raising her eyebrow. She and Erasa both had a look of jealousy on their faces, although Erasa's was more obvious because she had been doing it on purpose.

"Wha… no! Crowd –people and Lime… but, we were talk-" he blabbered, unable to explain anything in coherent sentences, until Lime hit him in the face with a pillow.

"Yeah… don't talk Gohan. What Gohan here is trying to say is that nothing was happening here… we were just talking. In fact, I was apologizing for yelling at him when he came in, because I thought he broke in to see me naked or something." She got up and pulled her shirt down a little self-consciously. "Anyway, I'm Lime, Gohan's new roommate. Nice to meet you."

The others just stared at her for a second, although Sharpener was staring slightly lower than the other two. Videl noticed this and slapped him in the back of the head. "Pervert…" she mumbled.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too. I'm Videl. This is Erasa, and that's Sharpener." she continued. The other two said "Hi.", and Sharpener was still cradling the back of his head where Videl had hit him.

"So this is weird… I didn't know that they let guys and girls share a room." Erasa added.

Lime turned to her. "They don't. I sort of 'accidentally' said that I was a guy. I'm just going to change it later today. I doubt they'd bother to change my room now anyway."

"Wow! You're so lucky… I wish I'd thought of that." Erasa said, giggling while Videl rolled her eyes.

"Haha… yeah. And I guess I got lucky. Gohan and I have met before. He saved my grandfather from getting shot by some freak with a gun once." she said, smiling at him.

"What! Nerd boy did that?" Sharpener asked. Now he was staring at her legs since she had turned around.

"Nerd boy? For your information Gohan is the one wh-" A glare from Gohan cut her off. "Err… what I meant to say is Gohan is probably way stronger than you are. Much more polite too…" She added, noticing where his eyes were looking. "Are you seriously going to keep staring like that? It's not like I'm not wearing underwear! I do it all the time… pervert!" At this she went to get some pants, and left Sharpener looking at Gohan like he was the luckiest man in the world. Videl noticed this, and hit him yet again.

When Lime walked in, she saw Sharpener on the floor, holding his head. This didn't surprise her too much, so she ignored it and asked out loud, "So what do you guys want to do? We still have an hour left."

"Well… we could eat lunch." Videl replied.

At this, Gohan jumped up said "Yeah! I'll make it!" He then set off running around the room, picking up capsules, then throwing one down to reveal a shiny looking stove. All three girls watched him curiously as he went about cooking a meal (Sharpener was still on the floor). With in five minutes, Gohan had set up what looked like a 10 course meal on a blanket on the floor of their room.

"Well? What are you waiting for guys? Let's eat!" he whined impatiently. He waited for them to all take some of the food that was sitting there, and then dug in. It never occurred to him that he was eating at an abnormal pace, until he finished 10 minutes later and saw them all staring at him, food untouched.

"Anything wrong guys?" he asked.

They just stared at him, shocked, until Sharpener spoke up. "Yeah… you just ate enough to feed several people for a couple of days. Besides that, you finished it in less than 15 minutes…" The others nodded in agreement and Gohan flushed.

"Oh… I forgot. It's sort of a hereditary thing. I just eat a lot more than most people. Sorry about that… I'll try to slow it down next time I guess."

"Whatever dude…" Sharpener mumbled as the rest of them went back to eating their food.

* * *

After they all finished it was almost time for their first class, so they headed out and walked towards the science building where luckily enough, they all had the same first class. As they walked along, several students called out to them, welcoming them back. Most of them were talking to Videl, especially since both Gohan and Lime were new to the school. Erasa didn't seem to mind, however, since she got her fair share of whistles anyway.

"Wow Videl, you're pretty popular around here." Gohan commented.

"Yeah… most of them are just sucking up though. I doubt they'd even talk to me if I wasn't 'Hercule's daughter'." she replied

"I wouldn't bet on that…" Gohan answered back.

"Pshhh… you haven't been around here long enough." she said doubtfully, waving to another random person whose name was a complete mystery to her.

They finally reached their class room with a few minutes to spare, and the five of them moved towards the back of the room. They sat there idly chatting, until the teacher called them to attention.

"Hello kids, welcome back to C.C. I'm Mr. Mann, your teacher for advanced biology this year. Since we don't have much time, we're just going to do a brief overview of the course today. First, however, it has come to my attention that we have two new students in here this year. Hmmm… let's see here. We have a Mr. Green and a Mr. Son. Both of you please come up here."

Gohan and Lime got up and walked to the front of the room. "Sir, I think they made a mistake on my records. I'm obviously not a boy, so I'll probably have to go and change that."

"Of course. Just introduce yourself and then you may go to the main office."

"Okay. Hi, my name is Lime. I'm 16 years old and…" Lime finished her introduction after a few minutes then headed out the door to find the coordinator's office to change her gender.

Gohan introduced himself to the class afterwards with his goofy son grin seemingly implanted on his face. He was extremely nervous with every one staring at him, and stumbled on the way up the steps to his seat in the back, eliciting a few giggles from the girls in the room. After he made his way back, the teacher began the overview of the class, which seemed mildly interesting to Gohan. The rest of the class listened respectfully, since no one was keen on getting in trouble on the first day of school.

The rest of the day passed fairly quickly, since the classes were shortened to a little over 20 minutes each. Gohan was happy to find that Videl was in all of his classes, and Lime was in most of them. Erasa and Sharpener were also in quite a few of his classes, but not all of them, because they hadn't been approved for a few of the higher level courses he had taken.

After they had finished all their classes, they walked outside, wondering what to do. It was 4:00, meaning that they had a good 6 or 7 hours before curfew, and there were plenty of things to do on the campus. Bulma had made sure of that. Unfortunately for Gohan, when they walked by the gym, Videl remembered a certain promise he had made her.

"Hey Gohan…"

* * *

AN: Well… there's my second chapter. Yeah… not too much action yet. I'm building up to it though don't worry. Vegeta's getting impatient anyway, so I'll probably stick him in there soon, along with some fight scenes. Anyway… next time: Videl's fight with Gohan is pretty much inevitable, Vegeta has a little fun, and Gohan makes a new friend. Of course… I pretty much just typed that stuff for no reason, so unless I can incorporate any of it in, it won't happen. The fight with Videl is coming though, and I'm going to stop rambling now. So anyway… please read and review! I'll probably update soon, if not tomorrow, because if I'm doing this I have an excuse for not doing AP work!

* * *


	3. Chapter 3: After School Activities

* * *

AN: Ok… so here's my third chapter. Can't really think of anything to write here… so go ahead and read it.

* * *

**Chapter 3: After-school "Activities"**

"Hey Gohan…"

"Yeah Videl?"

"We have nothing to do for a while, so let's go to the gym so we can have that spar."

"Pshhh… yeah, this should be good. I'd love to see Videl kick nerd boy's ass." Sharpener cut in.

"Wow… would you shut up? I think I'd rather see Gohan fight you. Maybe he could jam your mouth shut so we'd be spared from any more idiotic comments for a while." Lime answered.

"Hey… guys, chill. No need for anyone to get mad. Maybe we should do this another time, Videl." Gohan said, trying to calm Lime down before she said anything that HE would regret.

"No way! You promised me that you'd do it, and it's not like we have anything better to do right now. Or are you afraid of a girl?" she taunted.

"If I said yes would I still have to do this?" he asked, only half joking.

"YES!" she screamed in his ear, pulling him by the back of his shirt into the gym building.

"Hey Videl! I forgot. I don't have any training clothes with me. Awwww… this sucks. I guess we'll have to do this later." he said, trying to extract his shirt from her grip.

"Forget it… Sharpener can lend you some gym clothes from his locker."

"Well… I wouldn't want to both-" Gohan started.

"Sure… it'll be worth it just to see you get whipped, brains. Let's go." interrupted Sharpener, leading Gohan into the locker room.

Videl watched them go in, then went into the girl's locker room and came out with some short black shorts and a baggy white shirt. "That's more like it." she said to herself, starting up her warm ups.

"Hey Videl! Don't go beating him up too badly. You wouldn't want to mess up his handsome face!" Erasa called from the sidelines.

"What? You really think Videl is going to win?" Lime asked Erasa.

"Ha… even if he is good, there's no way he'll be able to beat me. Being Hercule's daughter does have some benefits. I'm one of the strongest fighters in the world. In fact, as soon as I'm old enough I'm going to enter the adult tournament myself." Videl answered for her from the ring.

"If you say so… but I wouldn't go underestimating Gohan. He's pretty strong." she said, with a dreamy look in her eyes.

"Whatever… you'll see what I mean when-" she stopped talking as Gohan and Sharpener walked into the room. Sharpener looked confused, but she wasn't looking at him. She was staring at Gohan. He was wearing some black shorts and one of Sharpener's sleeveless muscle shirts. 'Why the hell was he hiding all those muscles under his shirt? He looks sooo hot. Ahhh… what am I doing? I've got to pull myself together. I'm supposed to be fighting him, not checking him out!' Luckily for her, these thoughts had gone through her head in only a few seconds, so no one had really noticed her vacant expression. She quickly changed it to one of impatience and called out to him.

"So you're finally done changing? Come on. Let's do this."

Gohan hesitantly stepped into the ring. A few people had gathered around to watch Videl cream this new kid.

"Yeah Videl! Show him the heat. He's got nothing!"

"Haha, Videl, why are you even fighting this kid? He's got no chance against you."

Gohan just ignored them, not really caring whether some random kids thought he was weak or not. Lime, on the other hand, was starting to get annoyed. She looked like she was about to say something, but Videl beat her to it.

"I think it's time for you guys to shut up. If you want to watch, stay there, but no one needs the commentary. Let's start Gohan."

The "audience" quieted down, and Gohan nodded. As soon as she saw him nod, she ran straight towards him. Not wanting to hurt him, just in case he wasn't as strong as he looked, she threw a light punch at him. He ducked this with out a problem and stepped back, so she decided to go a little harder on him. This pattern went on for a while until Videl was trying to hit him with all her might. She swung viciously for his face, and when he ducked, she spun her foot across the ground; trying to trip him. She was surprised when instead of feeling her foot connecting with his leg, she felt nothing but air. She had counted on hitting him, so since she missed, her overcompensation caused her to fall on her side. Bristling, she got back up and launched another assault. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to hit him.

As Gohan fought Videl, he couldn't help but be impressed. He knew that not many humans could get to this level. And she had done it by herself, with no training from anyone else. 'Unless she got trained by Hercule… but that would make it even harder to believe.' Even as he thought about this, however, he was still wondering what he was going to do. He couldn't very well beat her… at least not in front of all of these people. He had heard her telling Lime about her status as one of the "strongest fighters in the world". After dodging a few more knees to the face, he decided that he'd let her hit him a few times, maybe hit her once, and then let himself get knocked out of the ring.

Coming out of his thoughts, he threw a light punch at her mid-section, and heard her gasp in pain, some boos coming from the stands. She let herself move back with the blow, then spun around and sent a roundhouse kick towards his face. He let this hit him, and allowed himself to slide across the mat. He wasn't going to reach the end, but he saw this as a good opportunity to lose, so he let off a little bit of ki, which sent him flying of the edge of the ring, and into the stands.

Gohan took his time getting up, and Erasa ran over to him. "Hey Gohan, are you okay?"

"Um… yeah. I'm fine. Videl got me good though, I went flying pretty far."

"Hey Gohan, what happened? It looked like you were winning, but then Videl beat you with like one kick." Lime asked as she walked over to him, even though she had realized by now that Gohan had done it on purpose.

"I'll tell you what happened!" came an angry voice from behind the crowd. The people surrounding Gohan parted, and he looked up to see Videl with a furious expression on her face.

"H-hey Videl. Good fight." he stuttered out in fear, standing up to shake her hand.

"Gohan! What are you doing?" she asked, glaring at him.

"I don't know… I thought I just lost the match. I was congratulating you on your win."

"You know that's not what I mean. You lost on purpose!" Videl screamed at him, causing him to cover his ears hastily.

"No I didn't. You hit me pretty hard there. I couldn't stop myself from sliding out." he lied, even though he knew by her face that she wouldn't believe him.

"OH YEAH? If I hit you so hard, then why aren't you bleeding?"

"Videl, chill out. Can you hear yourself? Now you're yelling at Gohan for not bleeding, before he lost." Lime cut in, coming to her friend's rescue.

"That's not what I meant. He definitely could have stopped that if he stopped all the other kicks. He threw the match for some reason. And to top it off, he only attempted to hit me once. It didn't even look like he was trying in the first place!" she spit out, not even breaking her death glare at Gohan to look at Lime.

"Maybe he couldn't. You said yourself that you were one of the best fighters in the world. Why don't you calm down, and we can all go back to our dorm and just hang out for a while. I'm sure you're both tired." Lime answered back. She didn't know why Gohan had thrown the fight, but realized that it was probably for the same reasons that he had chosen to let Videl's father keep the credit for defeating Cell. Maybe it was enough for him to know that he could beat them if he wanted to.

"Fine, let's go, but I still don't buy it. We're going to do this again, Gohan. And you had better give it your all next time."

"Hehe… ok Videl; let's just get out of here." Gohan was starting to get unnerved by all the people staring at them.

"Humph!" she exclaimed, walking out of the building in front of them.

* * *

The others caught up with her, and they started up a conversation about the fight that had just occurred, although neither Videl nor Gohan joined in. Even Sharpener was impressed by how Gohan had dodged almost everything Videl had thrown at him, although he would die before he admitted it.

Eventually the group made it back to their dorms, and before they all split off, Lime had an idea. "Hey guys! Since it's our first night here, we should do something fun. I know that we're not supposed to be out after curfew, but what if you guys just came to our dorm and slept over. It'd be fun! Besides… it's not like they're going to check every room to see if we're asleep."

Sharpener readily agreed to this; possibly because he was hoping for a repeat of Lime's choice of apparel from the morning, and Erasa thought it was a good idea too, but Videl refused, and stalked away into her room.

"Wow… what's her problem?" Lime asked, watching looking in Videl's direction. "I wonder what she would've done if you had won."

"I don't know, but you guys go on in. I'm going to go talk to her." Gohan answered, following after Videl.

"Whatever… why don't you guys go back to your rooms and get anything you need? I'll go clean up a little." suggested Lime. The other two shrugged and walked off towards their dorms.

* * *

Meanwhile, Gohan was getting tired of knocking on the door. "Come on, Videl. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you mad before. I'll admit it. I threw the match on purpose."

The door opened, and Gohan wasn't so sure that was a good thing anymore.

"I knew that stupid! My question was why did you throw the match?" Videl snapped, ready to slam the door in his face again.

"I did it because I didn't want to make a big deal out of it. If I had beaten you, everyone on the campus would have known about it before tomorrow. I don't need that kind of attention." he answered.

"Now you're making it sound like you knew all along that you were going to win. Are you that cocky? I'm not mad about the outcome. I would have won either way. I'm just mad that I didn't beat you at your best." Videl spouted confidently, even though she had her doubts about what she had just said.

"Let it go, Videl. We both know I would have won. You're still a great fighter. I just have a little more experience than you." he said quietly, trying to calm her down. He couldn't very well tell her that it was impossible for her to become as strong as him… there was no telling how she'd take that. And besides, if he did that, she wouldn't believe him unless he showed her how strong he really could be. 'Wait… what am I thinking? I just met this girl and I'm considering telling her everything about me? What's getting into me?'

"GOHAN!" A voice shook him from his thoughts.

"AHHHH! Sorry Videl… I guess I spaced out for a second."

"You're damn right you did! And what do you mean by more experience? I've been training since I was a child. AND I want to know how you dodged everything I threw at you." she demanded, getting closer to him by the second.

Gohan was slightly unnerved. She was now standing on her tiptoes, glaring at him, with her face merely inches away from him. "Umm… I don't know." he chuckled nervously. "I've been training since I was a little kid too. And I was able to dodge you because I'm faster than you I guess…" he trailed off as her eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Really, now? I couldn't have figured that one out on my own. Thanks." she replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I wonder if you're fast enough to dodge this!" she cried, slapping him in the face.

Gohan had considered moving, but he didn't think she would take it well if he dodged her: considering that seemed to be why she was mad at him in the first place. 'Girls are so weird…' So he let her hit him, and mumbled, "Guess not." By then he figured it was futile, so he turned and started to walk across the hallway.

Videl, on the other hand was shocked. 'What did I just do? He didn't even flinch! And why the hell does my hand hurt so much? Damn it! Now my hand is like swollen, and he probably hates me. I have to stop him.'

"Gohan, wait!" Gohan was surprised to feel Videl grab his arm as he walked away. He turned around.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think you'd actually let me hit you. I guess it's not your fault that you're stronger than I am." she mumbled this last part while caressing her hand, but Gohan still heard it.

He also noticed that she was rubbing the hand she had hit him with. 'Maybe that wasn't such a good idea after all.' Without a second thought, he took her hand lightly and rubbed it softly. He heard her gasp as he used some of his ki to warm his fingers, sending chills down Videl's spine. Her hand immediately felt better with the soft and warm aura caressing it, although she had no clue how he had done it.

"Thanks." she said, before blushing and pulling her hand away.

"No problem." he replied, realizing what he had just done and flashing the son grin. "Come on. Why don't you go get a pillow or something and come on over to our dorm? Erasa and Sharpener should be back any minute now.

"Alright, I'll be right over."

Gohan watched her go back into her room with a relieved sigh, and turned around and headed back into his.

* * *

Lime waited for Gohan to come in and close the door, then tried to read his expression.

"So, how'd it go?" she asked, although she already guessed the answer.

"Fine, I guess. She calmed down a little. I told her to get whatever she wants from her room and come on over." Gohan replied, looking around. Lime had gone and unpacked for both of them, stowing their clothes in the closet. He also noticed some green coverings on the bed, and that a couple of big, fluffy pillows had replaced the generic ones given to them by the school.

'Figures…' thought Lime. 'He probably did that stupid thing where he rubs the back of his head and laughs… it's soooooo cute. I doubt any girl could resist that.'

"So I guess you want that bed?" Gohan asked.

"What? Sure… I guess. I was under the impression that there was only one though. Are you planning to sleep on the floor?" she asked, looking around.

"No… there's another bed on top of this one. See the ladder? All you have to do is press that button over there and it slides out of the wall. How did you expect them to only have one bed in here with two people?"

"Oh… I don't know. I guess it would be kind of weird if it had been two guys sleeping in the same bed. But I wouldn't have minded…" she finished with a giggle, blushing slightly.

"Yeah… well there're two. But you should probably take the top one. I don't know if it could take my weight. It doesn't look that strong, it's only made of steel or something." Gohan decided, ignoring Lime's last statement.

"Okay… you can go on and put your stuff on this one then." Lime said; pressing the button and throwing her stuff up onto the top bed.

They finished setting up the room how they wanted it, and sat down on some beanbag chairs Lime had brought with her and began to chat idly until Videl walked in.

"Hey guys. Erasa and Sharpener not here yet?"

"Nope, their dorms are pretty far away I guess." Gohan answered.

"They're in the same building. How far could they be?" Videl asked.

"Who knows? Maybe they got "lost" or something. I'm sure they'll get here in a little while. You can throw your stuff down over there in the meantime." Lime told her, pointing to a spot near the base of their bunk.

Videl shrugged and threw a capsule over to the area she had pointed to and leaned back against the bean bag next to Gohan. Gohan laughed as a bed came out of the capsule, complete with beside table and lamp.

"You sure do come prepared, Videl."

"Well… there's no point in sleeping on the floor when you can just have a bed."

"Oh there was no need for that… I'm sure Gohan would have let you sleep in his bed. Right Gohan?" Lime asked with a wink.

Gohan chuckled nervously as he saw Videl look at him out of the corner of his eye. "Sure… I've slept on the floor plenty of times." he replied, lying back on his chair.

"You know that's not what I-" Lime started, until she was cut off by a pillow hitting her face.

"That's better." Videl stated, laughing with Gohan at Lime's reaction.

"We'll see about that." Lime answered back, knocking Videl of the side of the chair with another pillow.

Before long, the two girls were engaged in a massive pillow fight, with Gohan watching from the sidelines in amusement. Eventually, the girls noticed that he was just sitting there.

"Gohan, what are you doing?"

Gohan was unable to answer because the minute Videl looked at him he took in her disheveled appearance, with hair going in every direction, and burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" she asked him.

"YOU!"

At this, Videl turned around and looked at a mirror. She had to admit, the scene was pretty comical. Both she and Lime looked as if they'd been attacked by a bear, and the room was covered with the pillows that they had found in the closet.

"Well, we'll see how perfect you look a few minutes from now." she replied, jumping on him and whacking him repeatedly in the head with the pillow. Lime soon joined in, and the room was covered with feathers from the pillows that had broken open on Gohan's rock-hard head.

Finally exhausted from exerting so much energy, the two girls fell to the ground laughing. Gohan, of course, was far from tired, but he just sat there and laughed with them until Sharpener and Erasa came back.

"Hey guys! We got pizza!" Erasa called from the door. The next thing Sharpener knew, his hands were empty, and the two walked in to find Videl and Lime panting on the floor, while Gohan had already scarfed down a whole box of pizza.

"Wow… what happened here?" Erasa asked.

"Pillows…" Lime mumbled; trying to get up, but failing and falling back on to the bean bag chair.

"If you say so…" Sharpener replied doubtfully. He shrugged and walked over to the table, hastily snatching a piece of pizza before Gohan dropped it into his black hole of a stomach.

The night went on uneventfully for the most part. The teenagers just hung out; watching some TV, playing some video games, a short game of monopoly. After a while, someone noticed it was one o'clock, and every decided that they might as well go to sleep. Everyone got into their respective beds (Erasa, too had brought a bed, while Sharpener just laid down on top of the bean bags.), and with in minutes most of them had fallen asleep.

* * *

The next morning, (or later that morning technically) Gohan was the first to wake up. He opened his eyes to see Videl sleeping peacefully on her bed, which was right next to his. 'I could get used to waking up to her face.' he thought subconsciously, without really hearing himself. He looked around the rest of the room with out getting up. Erasa was sleeping peacefully, much like Videl. Sharpener seemed to have rolled over quite a bit during the night, and the beanbags were on top of him as he snored loudly. He could see Lime's leg hanging out over the bunk. He checked the clock, and it said that it was only 6 o'clock. He could stand to sleep for an hour more…

After Gohan went back to sleep, the others gradually began to wake up. Sharpener and Erasa went back to their own rooms. Lime went to take a shower, and as she got out, Videl was waking up.

"Hey sleepy-head… it's about time you woke up. I don't know how you two stayed asleep for so long. Sharpener was snoring so loudly… I had a headache when I woke up. Anyway… I'm going to go down and get some coffee. Can you wake up Gohan? I'll meet you guys in bio." She said all this as she threw on some clothes from her drawer and dried her hair.

"Yeah… sure… whatever." Videl mumbled sleepily.

Lime grinned and walked out the door. Videl took her time in getting up, went back to her room, took a shower, and came back only to find Gohan still asleep in bed.

"Ugh… he's not up yet?" she whined. "Gohan." she called out softly, pushing him back and forth softly on the bed. Well… this was what she meant to do anyway. He didn't even budge. She tried it again and laughed as his hand came up and knocked hers away. 'He's so cute like this. Too bad I can't take a picture. I guess I'll just have to take a mental one.' She thought as Gohan pulled his pillow closer and snuggled up to it contentedly. 'He doesn't look like he's going to wake up any time soon… Hey! No one's here. I wonder if I could… no, that would be stupid. But I bet Erasa would take advantage of a situation like this. But since when do I want to be like Erasa? Ahhhhhhhh… girlish thoughts. Damn it! Why am I talking to myself? I must be insane. Oh, what the hell…'

She attempted to shake him one more time, making sure he wouldn't wake up and find her in a very compromising position. When he didn't budge, she slowly got on the bed, and stopped when her face was mere inches from his. 'Why am I doing this anyway? What's a kiss good for if he won't even be awake to remember it? Oh well… it'll make a good daydream for AP English.' When she thought she had finally worked up the resolve to just kiss him and get it over with, he stirred. Startled, and not wanting him to wake up to find her practically lying down on top of him, she jumped up. Unfortunately for her, she had forgotten that it was a bunk bed, so she hit her head and fell back on top of him anyway.

When Gohan woke up, he was extremely confused. He felt something on top of him, so he opened his eyes slowly and just in time to see Videl's head hit the top of his bed and then come back down and hit him in the face. He would have sat up, but he realized that she was straddling him, in a manner of speaking, and if he got up she would go flying. So instead, he shook his head, as if to rid himself of the confusion, and watched as Videl looked up at him slowly then turned away blushing.

"Videl… what's going on?"

'Oh my god… what do I say now?' She stared at him blankly for a second.

"Oh… ummmm… yeah. I was trying to wake you up and um… I tripped over the red stick and I fell on the bed." 'Red stick… yeah right. Good job stupid. He's really going to buy that. And even if that had happened… how can I explain landing on top of him.'

"Really?" he replied stupidly. "I did that same thing earlier today."

'Wow… for someone with perfect test scores, he's not very bright.' she thought. "Oh… haha. That's a funny coincidence. So anyway… I was trying to wake you up. Then you got up suddenly and surprised me. And I hit my head on the thing, then you…" she listed, thanking god that he was so gullible. And at this point she remembered how badly her head actually hurt. "And damn! What the hell is that head of yours made of? It hurt more hitting that than it did hitting the stupid bed."

"Well… I always eat my vegetables." he said, chuckling nervously. 'Did I just say that?'

"Along with everything else apparently…" she grumbled, looking at the stack of empty pizza boxes from the night before. 'Damn it… this is going to swell.' she thought, rubbing her head.

"Let me look at that." stated Gohan, pulling her hand away and brushing her hair away to look at the spot where she had hit his head. "That looks like it might swell. We should get some ice on it." he said, as if reading her mind.

"No… it's fine. Anyway… I came in here to get you up, and now you're up, so get ready and we can go." she replied hastily, trying to get up, but tripping over his legs and falling off the bed. To top off her good luck streak, she ended up landing on her head –again.

"That's definitely going to need ice now…"

"Shut up and go take a shower. I'll get the stupid ice myself."

"If you say so…"

As Gohan took a shower, Videl got some ice to put on her head and searched the room for anything of hers that she had forgotten. 'Where's my pillow?' she thought, trying to remember the night's events. 'Oh yeah…!' She looked up, and saw her pillow caught on top of the ceiling fan. She looked for something to knock it down with and her eyes fell on a certain red stick.

(AN: Okay… I'm going to make certain assumptions about the power pole, which if anyone cares, will be explained at the end of the chapter. )

Gohan had just gotten out of the shower, and was just putting his shirt on, when he heard a scream from outside the bathroom. He opened the door and ran out, to find Videl hanging onto the top of the power pole (which had extended) for dear life, as it teetered back and forth. Gohan quickly grabbed the pole and it shrunk back to normal, allowing him to catch Videl as she fell.

Shock was evident on her face. "Gohan… WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?"

"It's the power pole." he answered, as if it was an item which could be commonly bought at a grocery store.

"Wow… thanks. That explains so much to me."

"Well… it was my dad's. It's a weapon that sort of extends when you want it to. Why? What happened?"

"I was using the thing to knock down that pillow over there," she pointed to the pillow, which had fallen to the ground. "And I couldn't reach it. I was just thinking how I wished the stupid stick was longer when I ended up swinging back and forth near the ceiling."

"Well… the power pole sort of does whatever you want it to do. You just think about it getting longer or shorter and it does. So I guess it got longer when you wanted it to. It's kind of funny that it got longer that way though. It could have just gone the other way so you could knock down the pillow. I wonder if it is able to think about stuff like that." He pondered, completely forgetting that Videl was still in the room, much less in his arms.

"Well that's nice… a stick with a sense of humor. Why does kami hate me?" she grumbled.

"I doubt he hates you specifically." Gohan answered reasonably.

"What?" Videl asked, almost certain that she had misheard him.

"What? Oh… nothing… nothing. Never mind." He stuttered, as he realized that he had almost given away that he knew "kami".

"Right…" she said, doubtfully as she stared at him like he was crazy. It was then she noticed that he was wearing no shirt, and looked away pointedly. "So are you going to put me down anytime soon?" she asked, although this was really the opposite of what she wanted.

"Oh yeah… sorry." he mumbled, placing her lightly on her feet.

"Whatever. We should probably get going. We'll be late for –SHIT! Gohan!"

"What?"

"We completely missed Bio."

"Wow… we cut the first real class of the year. Mom's going to kill me." He shivered unconsciously at this, thinking of the frying pan that so haunted his dreams. Or maybe they were nightmares.

"Well! Don't just stand there! Hurry up! We'll be late for English too."

"Oh yeah!" he exclaimed, throwing on his shirt and pulling her out the door and practically dragging her all the way to English. He sighed with relief as they made it in before the bell. "Thank god. I'd be dead if I missed the start of ANOTHER class."

Lime stared at them as they walked in. This was one of the classes neither Erasa nor Sharpener was in. "Where the hell were you two? You better not have been doing anything fun without me!" she whined, looking jealously at Videl; who was now leaning on Gohan's shoulder, exhausted from running all the way to the English building, and completely oblivious to her surroundings.

"Trust me –you don't even wa-" he started.

"Mr. Son! Quit yapping in the back there!"

"Yes sir!" he replied obediently, hiding behind his textbook.

Lime rolled her eyes then smiled. This year was going to be interesting, at the very least.

* * *

AN: Yeah… so I assumed that the power pole works sort of telepathically. I kind of remember Goku yelling something like "power pole extend!" or whatever, but I'm sure he didn't say it every time. So that's how it's going to work here, although I'd be glad if someone could tell me if he does say something like that. Not that it'll change anything in the story, because I doubt that I could come up with a reason for Videl to say some catch phrase to make it get longer without knowing exactly what it does.

Anyway… last time I made up a bunch of stuff in the previews… so I'm not going to even do one this time. I meant to put Vegeta in here somewhere, but there really was no place… unless I just made him break in while they were sleeping or something. So I'll probably find a reason to use him. There'll probably be a lot more action next chapter too. Sooooo… I'm going to stop wasting your time and get started since I have nothing better to do right now except for homework. This basically means I have nothing better to do. Period.

* * *


	4. Chapter 4: Meet the Parent

* * *

AN: Once again… nothing really to say here. Thanks for the reviews I've gotten, and I hope you guys continue to enjoy my story.

* * *

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* * *

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**Chapter 4: Meet the Parent**

A few weeks later, Gohan could be found "running" across the campus of C.C. to his dorm room. Until a few moments ago, Gohan had been enjoying the fact that he actually had friends that were his age for once in his life. Nothing too out of the ordinary had happened since that first night; although Gohan thought that some of Videl's exploits over the past few weeks had been quite funny.

On one occasion she had borrowed his power pole, and hidden in a tree outside Sharpener's room. The next time Gohan saw Sharpener; he looked very grumpy, and was complaining about some horrible dream. From what Gohan had surmised, it involved the devil poking him with some stupid stick. He had woken up several times during the night, seemingly pushed out of his bed; but had seen no trace of anyone around his room. At the point where he had been complaining about the devil, Videl had fallen out of her chair laughing; causing Gohan to chuckle, and a fair number of students to look back at her like she was crazy. Sharpener had merely stared at her for almost a minute, completely at a loss as to why she was laughing so hard.

Gohan chuckled again as he thought back to that day, but then remembered why he was heading back to his dorm so early on a Saturday morning. He had completely forgotten to go back and visit his mother and Goten since he had arrived at C.C. He shivered as he pictured how angry she would be. 'Oh well… I guess I've lived a relatively full life.'

* * *

He made his way back to his dorm to pack a few things for a trip to his house. Ducking a wayward Frisbee and dodging a frenzied crowd of lunatic girls (who were chasing after some poor pop-star Bulma had hired for the Friday night show), he finally arrived at his own room. He stepped in to find Lime and Erasa playing some game in a magazine Erasa subscribed to. 

"Okay… so number 4. Have you ever found yourself-" Erasa was saying.

"OH HI GOHAN!" Lime interrupted her in a loud voice.

"Hey guys…" Gohan said, walking into the room. "What're you doing?" he asked, trying to get a look at the magazine in Erasa's hands.

"Nothing!" Lime exclaimed, hurriedly taking the magazine from Erasa and chucking it out the window.

"Lime! What are you doing?" Erasa cried, watching it float to the grass outside.

"Gohan would have seen it! Shut up and I'll buy you a new copy later." she hissed as Gohan pretended he couldn't hear them.

"Right… so anyway, I'll just be packing then." he said aloud, fighting the curious urge to jump out the window and see what they were looking at.

"What do you mean packing?" Erasa asked him.

"I'm going to take a trip back to my house for a week. I heard the principal saying we have all of next week off for some reason and I haven't been home in a while." he answered.

"Well we have off because next Thursday is the anniversary of the Cell Games…" she informed him.

"Oh yeah…" he whispered, as a familiar pained look passed over his face again.

Lime walked up to him and hugged him. "I'm sorry Gohan. I know how hard this time of year must be for you." she whispered into his ear.

"Thanks, Lime. I'll be alright. I've been through four of these… what's one more." he answered back.

"Hey… what's going on?" Erasa asked curiously.

"Well… Gohan's father died on that same day, Erasa." Lime told her.

"Oh… I'm so sorry Gohan. If I had known, I wouldn't have-" she started.

"No, it's fine Erasa. There's no need to apologize. It's been five years. I should be over it by now." He answered, turning away from them so they wouldn't see the tears threatening to escape his eyelids.

"No Gohan, some things just aren't meant to heal quickly. You have to give it time; but in the meantime, you know we're all here for you, right? Come on, I'll help you pack." Lime called out to him, moving over to his drawer to put some clothes neatly into his suitcase.

"Thanks Lime. I've got it though. You guys should go do something fun. I think the Friday night concert is still going on. Why don't you head down there?"

"Why would they do that? Where are you going?" Videl asked, stepping into the room.

"I'm going home to visit my family. My mom could probably use some help at home since I've been gone for a while." he answered.

"You're leaving for the whole week then?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah, I guess so." he replied.

"That sounds awesome! I hate being here this week. My father's face is plastered on every damn door. Can I come with you? I want to see where you live." she asked excitedly.

"I don't know Videl. It's a pretty long trip back…" he said, thinking of how long it would take in a car. Not that he even had one.

"Come on Gohan! We can take my helicopter. It's probably way faster than what ever you're driving." she exclaimed.

'I doubt that.' Gohan chuckled to himself. "Well… I guess that'd be alright. I'll just finish packing and we can head off whenever you're ready."

"Hey!" Lime cut into their conversation. "What about me? I want to go too!" she cried out indignantly.

"I don't see why not. Is there enough space in your helicopter Videl?" Gohan asked.

"It might be a little packed, but I guess so. Are you coming too Erasa?"

"I wish I could! I'm on the decoration committee. I have to stay here and help set up for the Hercule Day parade…" she said with a pout.

"Oh… that sucks. I guess we'll see you when we get back. I'm going to go pack." Videl told her. "You guys can meet me out by the east parking lot when you're done packing." she told Gohan and Lime.

"Okay, we'll be there in like fifteen minutes." Lime replied.

* * *

"Finally, we're here!" Lime exclaimed about four hours later, as they saw a small house appear on the horizon. 

"Wow… Gohan, this is where you live?" asked Videl, her eyes wide open. "This is amazing. It's like a mountain paradise."

"I guess it is pretty cool. It gets kind of lonely sometimes though, living all the way up here with no one else around."

"Well that's what we're here for!" Lime exclaimed, as Videl landed the yellow helicopter in front of the Son household.

As soon as they landed, Gohan jumped out and ran towards the house. Lime and Videl took their time, wanting to give Gohan some time to greet his family.

"Hey mom! Goten! I'm back!" he called out as he opened the door.

Chichi walked in to the living room. "So you haven't forgotten about us. What a surprise." she said with a sniffle, trying to make her oldest son feel guilty. Truthfully, she had expected him to forget his promise to come back and visit every week. She hadn't even expected him to visit for at least another week. Not that she was going to let him know that…

"I'm sorry mom! I've been so busy with school that-" he started, trying to head his mother off before she got angry with him.

"School, huh? I bet. I bet you've got yourself a girlfriend and now you're too busy to come see your own mother." she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "At least tell me you've brought her back to meet me." At this, she looked out the window and backed up in surprise. "Two girls, Gohan? What is the meaning of this? Are you planning to marry both of them? Because I will tell you this right now Gohan, I will not have-"

Videl and Lime were walking slowly to the door when they heard "MOM!" and then a chorus of clangs and other loud noises that would normally be associated with certain kitchen utensils. "That will teach you to interrupt your mother Gohan Son! Now go and invite them in! How could you leave them outside like that? This is not how I raised you!"

They heard a groan as Gohan opened the door, rubbing his head. "Sorry about that. Come on in. This is my mother." he said, indicating a haughty looking woman wielding a frying pan. "Mother, this is Videl and that is Lime." he told her, closing the door behind them.

"Hello Mrs. So-" Videl started, only to be interrupted by Chichi.

"Oh No! Please, call me Chichi. I feel old enough with out that Mrs. in front of my name."

"Erm… ok… Chichi. Nice to meet you." she quickly substituted.

"That's better. Now Gohan won't tell me, so I'll have to ask you. Which one of you is his girlfriend?" she asked, looking both of them up and down.

"HEY! Mom…" Gohan interrupted, trying to get her off course. "Where's Goten? I haven't seen him around yet."

"Well… Vegeta picked him up before. He's off playing with Trunks for the weekend. He should be back on Monday. I promised I'd keep them for a couple of days after that." she informed him. "But that's enough of that. Neither of you answered me. Which one of you is his girlfriend?" she asked, refusing to let the subject be changed. At this Gohan face-faulted, and waited there on the ground for a while. To tell the truth, he was slightly curious as to what they would tell her.

The girls laughed feebly, looking at one another. "Ummm… Mrs-" Lime hesitated at a death glare from Chichi. "- I mean… Chichi, neither of us is his girlfriend. We're all just friends." She finished.

"Oh." Chichi looked at Videl, hoping she would say otherwise, but she didn't, and Chichi sighed disappointedly. "Well, that's fine then. I'll go get some lemonade."

As she walked away, the two girls heard her mumbling something about grandchildren, and both of their faces turned slightly pink. Gohan noticed this and felt inclined to add in a lower voice as he stood up, "You should probably just ignore her. You see, living up here on the mountain all these years, she's become a little eccentric."

Before he could say anything else however, a large frying pan flew in from the kitchen and hit him in the head, knocking him over again. "I HEARD THAT!"

"Heh heh… I was just kidding mother…" he said, clutching his head and wincing while both girls looked on in shock.

"This explains a lot." Lime murmured, as Videl nodded in agreement.

* * *

The rest of the day flew by fairly quickly, with Chichi chatting with the two girls and Gohan sticking around to interrupt her incase she said anything too embarrassing. This led to more encounters with the frying pan, and quickly enough; the shock had worn off and the girls had become quite accustomed to the frequent clanging, as well as the yelps of pain that always accompanied them. In fact, Chichi had offered to give each of them their own frying pan, which had left Gohan on the verge of tears. Videl readily accepted this gift, and began to chase him around the house, swinging it with an oddly joyous expression on her face. This left Lime and Chichi in the living room by themselves for a while. 

"So Chichi, where will Videl and I be sleeping tonight?" Lime asked, glancing outside and noticing the setting sun.

"Well dear, I'm not quite sure to tell you the truth. We don't have any extra rooms. If Gohan had told me you were coming, I would have borrowed a capsule house from a friend." Chichi replied, thinking. "I suppose for now the two of you could sleep in Gohan's room. Gohan can just sleep on the couch over here."

"Oh… are there two beds in Gohan's room?" she asked curiously.

"Well… yes. Goten had a hard time sleeping by himself for a while, so I put his bed in Gohan's room." She answered.

"Oh! That's so cute!" she squealed, before turning sharply as a loud noise resounded throughout the house.

"That girl is a quick learner." Chichi commented, nodding approvingly at the clanging noise that had come from the other room.

* * *

"VIDEL!" Gohan whined from the floor. 

"Oh stop whining… your mother must have thrown that thing at you faster than the damn speed of light before. I doubt you can even feel it anymore." she replied, rolling her eyes.

"It hurts on the inside…" he mumbled, rubbing his head.

"Oh… poor baby! Do you want me to kiss your boo-boo?" she asked, putting on a mocking "sad" face.

"Yes?" Gohan replied with out thinking.

"Pssshh… You wish." she snorted, whacking him on the head again as she walked out the door. 'And sadly enough… so do I.' she added in her head, sighing with resignation. 'I'm becoming more and more like Erasa everyday. Stupid Gohan. I never cared about boys that much before… what's so different about him?'

* * *

An hour or so later, the lights went out in the Son household, and its inhabitants floated into a nice, peaceful, dream-like state. All except for Gohan that is… 

_Father! NOOOOOOOOOO!_

"_Trunks? What are you doing in this timeline?" Gohan asked, confused. "In fact- What am I doing here?"_

_Trunks seemed not to hear him, and kept screaming out to his father. Gohan looked upwards as he felt an enormous ki spike._

"_Vegeta…" he trailed off, staring in awe. "Since when has he reached the next level?"_

"_AHHHHH!" –Vegeta let loose an earth shattering scream, as electricity crackled around his body. "You fool! I will not rest until your blood stains the earth you have already defiled with your pitiful presence, leaving a reminder for all foul beings like yourself; do not ever underestimate the true power of the saiyan race! This is the end for you…FINAL FLASH!" As he said this, he spread his arms out wide, and allowed the ki to build up in each of his hands. As Gohan watched in shock, he brought the two massive balls of energy together; releasing a tremendous wave of energy towards an unseen foe, and a flash of light lit up the sky, blinding Gohan completely._

"Gohan…?" Videl asked uncertainly. She had heard him talking in the living room when she had gotten up to get a glass of water. "You awake?"

He continued mumbling in his sleep… "Vegeta?"

"What are you talking about? Gohan?" Videl walked up to him curiously, and moving closer in the dark, trying to figure out whether or not his eyes were open.

Suddenly his eyes opened, flashing teal for a split second.

"AH!"

"AHHHH!"

"GOHAN!"

"VIDEL?"

"Stop yelling…" Lime whined from the doorway as she walked into the room. "What's going on?"

"I don't know. I think Gohan was sleep-talking." Videl answered.

"Oh… I see. Was he talking about me?" Lime asked, giggling.

"I don't know… is your name Vegeta?" Videl asked sarcastically.

"No… but you can call me that if you want to, Gohan." she said, turning towards him.

Gohan sniggered.

"What?" Lime asked, curiously.

"Well… it's just that… Vegeta is a man." Videl started laughing too, until she realized the implications of what he had just said.

"Gohan… why are you dreaming about a man?"

Lime just stared.

"It wasn't that sort of dream!"

"Okay… whatever. But just so you know. It'd be fine with me if you were… you know."

"I'm not gay!"

"Okay, okay… if you say so I believe you." she stated in an unconvincing voice. "Well… I'm going back to sleep. G'night guys."

She walked off into Gohan's room again, and Lime followed her with a sleepy wave to Gohan.

"Ugh…" he sighed, before dropping backwards onto the couch and immediately going to sleep.

* * *

Gohan woke up late the next morning to the smell of food. "Breakfast…" 

Laughter erupted from the doorway.

"I told you he'd wake up if you hung that steak over him."

"How typical…"

"Wha…?" he started, getting up.

"Good morning, sleepy head." Lime greeted him, plopping the steak back on a plate in the kitchen. "Have any nice dreams?" she joked, winking at him.

"It's too early for this…"

"Too early?" Videl inquired. "It's almost noon."

"You mean I… missed breakfast?" he asked, confused.

"Yeah… we thought it was weird too. But enough of that…" Lime continued. "I have to tell you something. I talked to my grandfather on the phone before. I'm going to go visit for a couple of days, since we're all the way out here anyway."

"That sounds nice. When are you going?"

"I think I'll go sometime this afternoon." She inched closer to him. "I was hoping you could fly me there…" she whispered.

"Um yeah… sure. That sounds great. I'll take you over there around 3."

* * *

Following a nice and hefty lunch (to make up for Gohan's lack of breakfast), the group headed outside and walked around the forest for a while, as Gohan showed the two girls around the mountain. Soon enough, it was time for Lime to leave for her grandfather's house. 

"So I guess we'll be going now. I'm just going to drop Lime off Videl. You can just start up a movie or something. I should be back soon." Gohan told her, popping out a capsulated car.

"Okay… see you later Lime."

"Bye! I'll come back on Wednesday. Don't you two have too much fun without me!"

"We'll try not to…" Videl answered back, while pondering the situation quietly. 'Hmmmm… a few days alone in the woods with Gohan. I definitely like the sound of that.' she thought, blushing slightly at the pictures that floated through her mind.

As Videl waved goodbye -happily submerged in her own thoughts, the car sped off through the forest. Once they were out of range, Lime turned to Gohan. "So can we fly now?"

"Sounds good to me."

He pulled the car to a stop and let her out. After encapsulating it, he grabbed hold of her waist and lifted off into the air. He smiled as she let out a gasp of fear when she looked down. She then held onto his neck and buried her face into his chest. "Hehe… I guess I didn't realize how high up we would be." she laughed feebly, staring pointedly at his chest and not at the ground.

He chuckled. "Well don't worry about it. You're safe with me."

She looked up at his eyes. They seemed to sparkle with a sort of pure happiness that she had rarely seen in anyone her age. It was the sort of thing that radiated confidence, and somehow, her fears were forgotten. "I know." she replied, readjusting herself into a more comfortable position.

After a fairly short flight, they landed in Lime's village.

"Well Gohan, Videl won't be expecting you to come back for at least another hour, so what do you want to do?" she asked him.

"Let's eat!" he replied with out hesitance.

Lime sighed. 'This is the last hour I get to spend with him before Videl gets him all to herself for four days, and he wants to eat. Why am I not surprised?' "Come on, Gohan. You can eat when you get back home. Let's do something fun."

"Okay…" Gohan agreed, although he was at a loss to think of something more enjoyable than eating.

* * *

Lime had taken him to a spot by the river, in a lively apple orchard. "See, isn't this nice?" she asked him, pulling him down to sit at the base of a tree and leaning on his shoulder. 

"Ummm… yeah." he replied, not knowing what else to say. He was still caught up on that dream from last night. 'What was that? I don't remember anything like that ever happening. It felt so real… and even if it was just a dream, why would Trunks be in it? I haven't even seen him (or his older self, at least) since the Cell Games. Hmmm…'

At the same time, Lime was lost in her own thoughts. 'This is it… I have to do something now. Videl's not stupid. Tomboy or not, she'll try something over the next few days. But not if I do first…' Lime thought anxiously.

"Gohan…"

He turned towards her and vaguely noticed her face inching closer to his…

* * *

AN: Aha… done. Now to explain a few things. 

1. I have nothing against gay people. Period. But it is pretty obvious why any straight guy wouldn't want a girl thinking he's gay.

2. Yes… there is going to be something going on besides Gohan's random adventures in high school. I am in the process of developing a deeper story line at the moment. Or I'm eating a pop tart. Three guesses which one it is…

3. I finally threw Vegeta in there… I had to put him somewhere. I just couldn't rush it and get to the part with him though, so I just did a little foreshadowing. Or did I?

4. Read this story. I just realized this is a pointless statement, because if you're reading it, then you already have read this story. Probably. But whatever. If you have read it, please review. I won't cry if someone insults me, don't worry. I live in NY. Every conversation I take part in is blanketed with sarcasm. So any criticism is welcome too. As long as it makes sense.

Next Chapter: Down from the heavens, descended Chuck Norris… yeah. I'll leave it at that.

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	5. Chapter 5: Just Another Day

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**Chapter 5: Just Another Day _A La Casa_ Son**

"_Gohan…"_

_He turned towards her and vaguely noticed her face inching closer to his…_

* * *

Lime sighed, staring towards the direction that Gohan had blasted off to. 'What luck…' she thought as she drifted back to that moment that must have been at least a few hours ago. 'Stupid sky… why did it have to go all black like that? I wonder what could have caused that. And why did Gohan take off so quick when he saw it?' 

Across the globe, Gohan knew exactly why the sky had turned black. Or more appropriately, he knew how. Why… that was still a mystery; even to him. 'What the hell was the dragon doing here? No one said anything about making a wish, and even if they had done it on a whim, they would have still been there when I arrived. Stupid thing… it could have told me what was wished for it wanted to. That dragon is practically ASKING FOR A BEAT-DOWN! It better not have been another half pint "super villain" wishing for immortality AGAIN. I wonder if all of this is somehow connected to my dream…' he pondered.

Floating there above the clouds, with his hand propped beneath his chin, he thought back to that dream. The details were fuzzy… all he remembered was Vegeta's piercing scream as he had ascended to the second level of super saiyan. After that, it started to get even worse, fading away to Videl's face hovering over him as he woke up. 'Shit! Videl! I should have been back by now. And I left Lime sitting in the forest with barely a goodbye… ugh. This won't end well.' At this, he blasted away at top speed back towards his house.

Upon arriving, he noticed that the movie was still running. When he walked in the door, Videl turned her head from the couch. "So you finally decided to come back." she commented, raising her eyebrows at him.

"Hehe… well, I couldn't leave as soon as I got there, I had to help Lime unpack. Then the sky turned all black and stuff for some reason. I couldn't see that well, so I had to drive slowly." he replied cautiously.

"Really? Well where I come from they call that night. But I don't see why it took you so long to start on your way back here in the first place…"

"Ummm…"

"Yeah. That's what I thought. Have you and Lime been up to anything I should know about?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Like… what?" he asked, his eyes widening to make him look even more innocent than he usually did.

"Ugh… never mind." she laughed, rolling her eyes and throwing a pillow at his head. "Why don't you come and sit down. This movie's pretty funny. Some girl just got shot in the head like 20 times with a nail gun." she patted the seat next to her. 'Looks like Lime lost her chance…'

Gohan sat down next to her and picked up the DVD case. "Final Destination 3… didn't that just come out in theaters? I saw a billboard on the flight here."

Videl looked at the case. "Oh… I don't know. My dad gave it to me a while ago. People send him stuff before it comes out a lot of times. You kind of get used to it. It's almost sickening really… the lengths people will go to just to suck up to celebrities. They're wasting their time. They should spend that energy looking for the real "savior" of this planet." she declared, huffing.

Gohan looked at her, shocked. "What do you mean? You don't think your dad saved the earth from Cell?"

"Pshh… give me a break. I mean don't get me wrong, my dad's a tough guy." Gohan smirked at this. "I just don't see him as the sort of person who could defeat Cell. I mean, Cell blew up half the army with out getting a scratch on him. It would take something superhuman to deal with that kind of force. Do you want to know who I think defeated Cell?"

"Who would that be?"

"I think it was that kid. It's so weird. He looked like he was only 10 or 11. He'd probably be the same age as us right now. But somehow I know it was him… I wish I could meet him." she laughed. "Tell him how sorry I am that my ass of a father took all of the credit for his work."

At this Gohan smiled inwardly. 'I wish I could tell her it was me right now… but I've only known her for a couple of weeks. Maybe eventually I'll tell her… she deserves to know.' Out loud he replied, "I'm sure he doesn't mind. If he wanted credit for what he'd done he would have stuck around after the battle was over."

"I guess… but enough about that. Let's just watch the movie." She leaned back and they turned back to the movie just in time to see one of the characters walking through a fair as some man in a costume talked to a bunch of kids about experimenting with lightning.  
"Fuck you, Ben Franklin. Fuck you." This elicited a laugh from both of them.

Videl turned to watch Gohan as he laughed. 'There it is. That look in his eyes… it's like he's always happy. Whenever I see it it's like I can't help but smile. I wonder how he does that.' she thought, as the aforementioned smile spread across her face. With a sudden burst of inspiration, she raised her arms in the air and let out a rather loud, fake yawn. Feigning drowsiness, she sighed contentedly and leaned her head against Gohan's shoulder.

As she wrapped her arms around his left one, he looked at her in surprise. It wasn't often that she let her guard down, and he had seen her do it only a few times over the past few weeks. What he didn't know was that even the few times she had opened up to him; she had been stepping out on a new limb. It wasn't often that she warmed up to people as fast as she had with Gohan. Instead of questioning it, however, he took a blanket from the pile on the side of the couch, and laid it over both of them. This done, he took the opportunity to watch her as she pulled the blanket completely over her, and snuggled up against him. 'I can't believe this is happening. And somehow, her being here… it feels –there's no other way to describe it- it feels… right.' Feeling slightly apprehensive, he put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him. When he sensed no attempt to pull away, he relaxed a little, and let himself drift off to sleep.

Videl was beaming on the inside. Not only had he not moved away, but he had actually pulled her closer to him, unless she was mistaken. When he had put his arm around her, she had barely fought the urge to let out a gasp of surprise. Reveling in the warmth that seemed to surround him, she moved into a more comfortable position, and let the soft rhythm of his chest rising and falling put her to sleep.

* * *

Gohan woke up first the next morning, and was startled to see that Videl practically on top of him. After managing not to jump when he saw her, he remembered the events of the previous night. 'I should probably get up before she wakes up… things will be weird enough between us now with out her waking up in my arms.' As he thought this, he went to get up, but his luck failed as always. Videl stirred, yawning and stretching her arms out wide. She opened her eyes, and looked up and found herself staring straight into Gohan's. "Gohan…?" she asked, mildly confused.

"Uh… well-" he started.

"Oh yeah…" she cut him off. "I remember now." she laughed feebly and laid her head back on his chest, seemingly asleep again.

Gohan sat there for a minute, confused. When he figured that she was probably not going to get up again any time soon, he was about to move, but Videl's voice interrupted him yet again.

"You make a good pillow." she stated, as though it were a fact.

"Oh… thanks?" he answered, unsure of what to say.

"No problem." she replied sleepily. Reluctantly, she got up and rubbed her eyes. "I'm going to go and brush my teeth…"

Not waiting for a reply, she walked off across the hall and into the bathroom. When she got in, she looked at her reflection, as if asking for confirmation. When she was sure that she hadn't been dreaming, she broke out into a little dance. Little did she know, Chichi had seen the whole interaction between the two of them, and was doing a similar dance in the other room.

Meanwhile, Gohan was sitting in the other room, when a large growl erupted from his stomach. Shaken from their reveries by this loud noise; both women finished getting ready and entered the kitchen to find Gohan eagerly waiting there with a kitchen utensil in each hand, poised in attack position.

Videl laughed and took a seat next to him. Chichi merely ignored him; she was used to this sort of behavior coming from the young demi-saiyan. Instead, she gave the signal and went over to the sink to start washing the dishes. She had already eaten; she made it a habit to eat before Gohan or Goten. Their eating habits often forced her to lose her appetite even to this day. She turned around to see the two teens looking at each other "subtly". It was actually quite amusing to her. One would look at the other, and then turn away as the other took a glance at them. This continued for a few minutes until she felt like interrupting. At the sound of her voice, the heads of both teens snapped towards her.

"So… what did you two do last night?"

When she said this they looked at each other then turned away, both of them blushing slightly.

"Umm… nothing really mom. Just watched a movie." answered Gohan after a moment.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it. We were both tired from the plane ride I guess, so we kind of just fell asleep after that." Videl added.

"Really? That's weird. I didn't hear you go back to Gohan's room Videl. You must have gone to sleep after I did at the very least."

"Erm yeah… I guess I must have."

Chichi decided to let the subject drop for now, because she noticed they were both sufficiently uncomfortable. Gohan was even eating at a somewhat normal pace.

"So what do you two have planned for today?"

"I don't know. Is there anything you have in mind, Videl?" Gohan asked her.

"Well… I think it's time you gave me a rematch. I know that last time you lost on purpose. You better not do it again, or you'll regret it." she answered, glowering at him.

"Hehe… right… rematch. Okay, I guess." he replied nervously, giving a chuckle and flashing the Son Grin.

"Rematch in wha-" Chichi started curiously, when a red and blue blur appeared in the kitchen.

"Hey Gohan! We're back mom!" A second later, he was followed in by Trunks and Vegeta. Trunks had obviously been restrained from running in to greet them by his father's attitude.

"Hey Goten, Trunks… Vegeta." Gohan stated.

"Hi Gohan! Guess what!" Trunks said, bobbing up and down in front of Gohan. As he did this, his father glared at him, and he changed his demeanor almost immediately. Crossing his arms over his chest, he quickly substituted, "I mean… mom said that I could stay here for a couple of days to play with Goten. I guess it'll be fun."

Gohan laughed. "I bet it will be Trunks. Videl, this is my little brother Goten, his friend Trunks, and Vegeta- Trunks' father."

"Well, well, brat… it seems you are not as worthless as I had originally thought. You've managed to find a decent mate. Hmph." he said, looking at Videl and nodding in semi-approval.

"What's that supposed to mean, jerk?" Videl asked, staring at Vegeta with dislike.

"Hehe… don't mind him Videl, he's always like that." he laughed nervously, holding his hands up as if to calm her down. "It's not like that Vegeta." he added, turning back towards Vegeta.

"Really? That's odd. I can't think of any other reason for her to be covered in your pathetic scent. We'll see, but for now, I have more important matters to attend to." Videl just stared at him, apparently not knowing how to answer to that. "I will be back to pick up my son in three days." he continued, directing the last part to Chichi and walking out the door.

"I don't know how Bulma puts up with him… such a rude man." Chichi muttered. "Alright boys, I guess it's time for your breakfast." she said out loud.

"Yeah, Videl and I will get going I guess. We'll see you two later. Bye." Gohan said, indicating that Videl should follow him out the door.

Videl turned around and waved, "Nice to meet you. I guess I'll see you later." The boys completely ignored her, since they had already begun eating.

Chichi shook her head. "Don't even bother, dear. They can't hear you. Have a good time!" Videl nodded and left, as Chichi yelled out the door, "and don't forget my grandchildren!"

Outside, Videl turned to Gohan. "What did she just say?"

Gohan shook his head. "Trust me… you don't want to know."

* * *

A few minutes later, they arrived at the location Gohan had been looking for. A serene riverbank with some nice shady trees on the side… Goku and the gang had taken him camping here quite a few times when he was still a kid.

"This should work nicely." Gohan stated, coming to a stop.

Videl stopped a few feet behind him and looked around. Deciding that the spot was to her liking, she started stretching. "Looks like a nice place to kick your butt." she stated, throwing a few easy punches to warm up.

"Hey… I thought we agreed that I was stronger than you." he said, pouting for a few seconds before breaking out into a smile.

"Nah… I just let you have your moment because I felt bad after I hit you. Don't worry, I won't feel sorry this time." she replied, sprinting towards him.

As Gohan watched her running towards him, he felt something change within him. He saw the fire dancing in her cerulean eyes, and let him self slip into the rhythm of the battle.

"That's because you won't have the chance…" Gohan told her, before laughing at her gasp of surprise as her fist hit nothing.

She looked around in confusion, until Gohan snuck up behind her. Her eyes widened as she heard him whisper into her ear almost seductively, "What's wrong, Videl? I'm right here. Hit me."

Coming back to her senses, she spun round and kicked the air where he had been standing just before. Losing her balance, she fell over. But instead of landing on the grass, as she had expected; she was being held up by two firm hands.

Gohan sighed tauntingly. "Gee Videl; I thought you were here to fight me. If you wanted to train by yourself, I would have stayed at home." At this, he put her back on her feet. Then, leaning closer to her; he whispered again, "I think I win. Are we done here?"

Growling in frustration, she turned around and punched nothing but air once again. As she looked around, she heard laughter from above her. Upon looking up, she immediately found Gohan; he was standing on one of the higher branches, leaning against the trunk, and smirking in a self satisfied way. It confused her to see him like this. Usually, he was shy, and introversive. 'What the hell is up with him?'

"I think I'm going to end this now, Videl." he called up from the tree. She just stared at him, reassuming her battle stance. He casually jumped down from the tree, and phased out, only to reappear right in front of her. When he reached her, he threw a punch lazily at her face.

Videl blinked, and opened her eyes to see Gohan's fist hovering a millimeter away from her face. He laughed again. "Haha… you didn't actually think I'd hit you… did you?"

Videl simmered with anger.

"STOP PLAYING WITH ME!" At this, she went into a spree of punches and kicks that caught Gohan by surprise. "I'M… NOT… JUST… SOME… WEAK, LITTLE… GIRL!" she yelled in between punches. "WHY CAN'T I HIT YOU?" She threw a few more desperate punches, and then slumped onto the ground. Gohan saw tears in his eyes, and his whole attitude disappeared, to be replaced by a look of bewilderment. 'Why is she crying? I didn't even hit her…'

"Videl… I-" he started, trying to console her. He reached out to help her get up, but she batted his hand away.

"Shut up! Just leave me alone!" she screamed. She then turned around and ran into the forest.

Gohan sighed. 'Why do I always have to do this? I lost myself in the fight… again. All that taunting must have pushed her over the edge. Nice job Gohan! No, really, that was great! Maybe next time you can beat her to a pulp and laugh at her lifeless corpse! Man- I have to stop talking to myself… ' He was interrupted from his thoughts by a scream and a warning spike in Videl's ki level. "Crap!" he muttered, and ran off in the direction of Videl's wavering ki.

When he arrived "on the scene", he saw Videl unconscious at the base of a tree with a large cut on her forehead. A large dinosaur was stalking away from her into the forest. "Oh no!" He ran to Videl and felt her pulse. "Good… she seems okay. I guess I can just take her home. She'll get up soon." Sensing that he had at least a few minutes before she woke up, he picked her up and flew back to his house.

Chichi was outside doing laundry when he arrived back at the Son household. She took one look at the large gash on Videl's head and gasped. "What happened? You didn't do that to her, did you?

Gohan ignored her and walked into the house.

"Gohan! You come back here this instant and answer me right now!"

"Mother! Be quiet!" he hissed. "Videl was attacked by a dinosaur. She'll be fine. I'll take care of it… you can go back to your folding." Chichi was shocked. She took one look at his face and headed back outside. His expression hadn't left much room for argument. "Stupid teenagers… teaching my son bad manners… no respect for adults…" she muttered to herself as she walked out of the house to finish the laundry.

Once she was gone, Gohan got out the first aid kit and began to clean out Videl's cut. As he was applying a bandage to her head, she began to wake up. "Gohan… what happened?" she asked groggily.

"Um… you ran away. Then you were hit by a dinosaur." he stated bluntly.

"Oh… right." she mumbled, as she remembered what had happened. She then stood up and walked away into the kitchen.

Gohan just stood there confused for a minute, and then followed her tentatively into the kitchen. He didn't see her immediately upon walking in, so he called out her name, "Videl…?" A second later, a clang echoed throughout the house as Videl whacked him in the back of the head with Chichi's favorite frying pan. "Owww!" he moaned, lying on the floor.

Videl sat down on the floor next to him and said, "That's what you get for being such an arrogant jackass during our fight." She watched him rub his head tenderly and couldn't help but let out a small smile. "But thanks for coming after me anyway." she finished, leaning over to give him a small kiss on the cheek, and then resting her head on his shoulder with a sigh. "What a day… and it's not even noon yet." she remarked.

"Yeah…" he sighed similarly. After a second he said, "So I take it you'll stop asking to fight me now, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so." she let out reluctantly. He sighed in relief. "But now you're going to have to train me."

"What?" he cried out, jumping to his feet. Unfortunately, he had forgotten that Videl had been leaning on him, and she almost fell over. She got up and dusted off her pants, then glared at him. "Thanks."

He grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that."

"Yeah, yeah. That's okay. I forgive you." He laughed nervously. "Or I will when I can move as fast as you do." she continued, walking out of the kitchen.

"What?" he cried again, running after her.

"What do you mean what?" she asked him. "I told you. You are going to train me until I can move as fast as you do." she told him.

"But I've never taught anyone anything like that before!" he exclaimed. This was a lie. He had trained with Goten, but she didn't need to know that. There was no way he could consider training her. It was hard enough hiding his power while they were doing "normal" things, like playing baseball or jogging. If she was going to train with him, he'd really have to tell her the truth soon.

"I didn't ask if you had." she stated, walking away again.

Gohan let out a grunt of frustration. He'd have to set her straight. Taking a minute to compose himself, he stalked out into the living room.

"Videl, I'm not kidding. I'm not going to train you." As he said this, he winced, and waited for her to turn around.

'Shit… he's harder to boss around than I thought. Guess I'll have to pull out the secret weapon. I knew being friends with Erasa was good for something…'

She turned around and approached him slowly. "But Gohan, I thought we were friends…" she said softly. She pouted slightly and blinked twice while shifting back and forth. This produced Erasa's patented puppy dog look, and Gohan began to back up.

"We a-are…" he stammered.

"Then can't you do me this small favor?" she asked, taking another few steps forward. He kept backing up, and she followed him until he backed up against a wall. 'He's mine now.' she thought as she laughed inwardly. She began to trail her finger along his chest, "Come on…"

When Gohan had felt the wall behind him, he had cursed inwardly. 'Shit!' She came closer, and didn't look like she was going to stop anytime soon. Feeling trapped, he fought the sudden urge he had to either kiss her or blow a hole in the wall and run away. A moment later, she was WAY too close to him, and asking him timidly in this voice he couldn't seem to say no to. Then, she chose that moment to speak.

"Fine… if you don't want me around, I won't bother you." She turned away dejectedly, and began to walk off. He saw genuine hurt in her eyes, and he caved in.

"Wait! It's not that! I… I just… I've never taught anyone before. I'll probably suck. But if you really want me to, I guess I can try…" He saw her face instantly light up, and she threw herself at him and gave him a huge hug. Shocked, he just stood there. 'Was she… faking that?' He groaned inwardly. 'And I FELL FOR IT? Nice job Gohan… ugh.' He stared at the floor in defeat as she pulled away from him.

"Thanks so much Gohan! You won't regret it. We'll have SO much fun!" She noticed the blank look on his face. "Come on, cheer up! Just think of it as us hanging out a little more often."

Gohan raised his eyebrow. 'I guess that doesn't sound that bad… I'll just have to be a little more careful around her, that's all.'

"Besides…" she added, tilting his head up with her finger, "We don't have to train the whole time." she finished with a wink. Then, skipping inwardly at being the cause for the red tinge on his cheeks, she grabbed his hand and pulled him outside. "Come on. We can start tomorrow. For now, let's take a ride somewhere." She popped out her jet copter, and motioned for him to get in.

"Okay…"

He hopped into the plane, and Videl got in on the other side. "So… we have most of the day left. What should we do?"

Gohan thought for a second. "We could go swimming…"

"That's a great idea!"

"Hold on, I'll go get my suit."

He stepped out of the jet, and was going to get his stuff, but stopped when he felt something whiz by him. He looked around with a bewildered expression on his face.

"Gohan, what's wrong?" Videl called out from the copter.

"Umm… nothing I guess." He shrugged and walked inside.

* * *

A few hours later, they were floating over the sea, heading towards a familiar location. "So where did you say we were going again, Gohan?" Videl asked, pushing forward on the steering to make the plane dip downward towards the sparkling blue ocean.

"Well… I have some friends who live out on an island around here. I figured if we were going to go swimming, we might as well do it there." he replied, reaching his hand out the window to skim the waves as the plane flew by.

"Well… this place had better be pretty nice, considering you made us fly for like 3 hours to get here."

"It's not like we had anything better to do."

"I guess not-"

"Hey look! There it is!" Gohan cried out, pointing to an island on the horizon.

Videl pushed the plane to go faster, and they reached the island within a few minutes. "Hmmm… Kame House" Videl mused, reading the sign on the front of the house as she stepped out and encapsulated the plane. "You know… I think I remember hearing about this place somewhere. I can't put my finger on it…"

Gohan laughed. "Really? I can't imagine why. You're probably thinking of something else. Come on; let's go see what they're up to." he said, running into the house and opening the door without bothering to knock.

"Hey, Gohan! Wait for me!" she yelled, quickly following after him through the door.

The scene she was greeted with made her stop in her tracks. She wasn't sure whether she should laugh, or be utterly disgusted. An old man was sitting in front of an age-old T.V. screen, drooling as the women on an exercise video lifted their legs up and down. She looked over at Gohan, who appeared to be unsurprised by any of it. "Hey old man, you know where Krillin is?"

"Someone call my name?" Krillin asked as he stepped into the room.

"Hey! Krillin! Long time no see!" Gohan called out from across the room.

"Gohan? No way! Wow… you're… so much taller than me now. Like everyone else…" Krillin sighed.

"Haha… I'm sure you're used to it. So you grew your hair out?"

"Yeah… you know; 18 didn't like the bald look, so I let it grow out."

"Of course I didn't. You looked like an overgrown dragon ball" 18 said, as she stepped in from the bedroom.

"Oh, hey 18. How's it going?" Gohan asked, turning towards her.

"Fine. Except for the fact that we live on an island with an old pervert." she glanced over in Roshi's direction. "Roshi! Stop being a jackass and go do something useful for once!"

At this point, Videl interjected. "Roshi? As in Roshi the renowned turtle hermit?" she asked Gohan.

Roshi heard the comment, and turned around to see Videl. Before anyone could do anything, he was kissing her hand. "One and the same, missy. How would you like to take a walk along the beach with a real man?"

Gohan growled almost inaudibly.

Videl was about to answer back, when a small girl hit Roshi over the head with a frying pan and dragged him away by the ear. 18 explained, "Just ignore him. He may have been some famous martial arts master back when he was younger, but now he's just a lecherous old fool."

Gohan just looked on, confused. Krillin laughed. "Just because YOU have been too busy to visit, doesn't mean your mother hasn't. She came by a while ago to tell us about you going to school or something. While she was here, she even took it upon her self to give Marron a "cooking" lesson while she was here. Poor, poor Roshi. But enough about that…" he turned mischievously to Videl. "Who is this? Three weeks in high school and you've got yourself a girlfriend already?" He turned to his wife. "Kid works fast, 18." 18 rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Oh! Videl isn't my girlfriend Krillin." Videl's face fell a little after hearing this, but then a Vegeta-like smirk crossed her face.

"Why not, Gohan?" she asked, while advancing towards him.

'Not this again…' he thought in his head, but all he could say was, "heh?" as she backed him up into a wall.

"Don't you think I'm pretty?" she asked him; flashing her eyelashes and getting closer to him by the second.

'You'd think I'd have figured out what to do in this situation by now…' he thought to himself. Out loud, he stammered, "Umm… yes- but we… I mean I… thought that…we-ahhh!" CLONK.

Krillin just stared in shock. 'What the hell? Is that the same kid who defeated Cell? And she just made him trip over himself, out a window, and some how he's knocked out. WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO?'

18 spoke first. "Okay… so what I've gathered from this is that your name is Videl," Videl nodded. "And that all men are blabbering idiots." she continued. They both looked at Krillin, who was gaping at the window with his mouth wide open.

Videl giggled. "I guess so." She looked out the window. "I didn't mean to do that though. Do you have a med kit?"

18 walked over to the window sill. "Yes…but it's not necessary. Believe me. That boy has been through far worse than that." She sized Videl up with her eyes. "Maybe he'll tell you about it himself one day. It's really not my place though." She stared out into the sea thoughtfully. "I suppose we might as well bring him inside the house before the waves drag him out to sea."

They left Krillin standing there, and went to bring Gohan back in. "So what did you two come here for anyway?" 18 asked Videl.

Videl watched as 18 hoisted Gohan onto her shoulders effortlessly, and then responded, "We came to go swimming. I'm not sure exactly why we came all the way out here though."

"I guess we'll have to wait for this clown to wake up."

Videl sighed.

* * *

When Gohan woke up, Videl's face was hovering over him.

"Hey! You're finally up."

She moved aside and he sat up. "How long have I been out for?"

She pretended to think for a while, mumbling random numbers. "Well… about 3 days, and 4 hours."

"Wha-?" he jumped up and got caught in a comforter, causing him to fall off the bed.

Videl just laughed as he tried to extract himself from the entangling comforter. "Calm down… I was just kidding. You fell out the window like 20 minutes ago."

"Oh…"

18 chose that moment to walk in. "So you're finally up. Now you can tell us why you came all the way out here just to go swimming."

"Oh yeah… right. A while ago, I was looking at the dragon radar, and I noticed that there was a dragon ball somewhere around here. I figured that if we were going to go swimming, we might as well pick it up." he explained.

"What's a dragon ball?" Videl asked from the corner. "I heard you mention something about one before and I was going to ask you about that." she said to 18.

18 began to reply, "Well, dragon balls are these magical-" but Gohan interrupted her.

"HAHA. What 18 means to say is, dragon balls are these ancient artifacts that we… umm… collect!" he interjected quickly. "They're pretty rare, so I figured that we could go scuba diving, and I could just pick it up if we happen to see it."

Videl looked at him suspiciously. "Riiiiiiight… whatever. So are we going to go swimming or what? Come on." She walked out the door and the other two followed her to her copter. "Luckily for you, I happen to be prepared at all times, so I have a couple of spare oxygen masks in here."

"That's great Videl!" He turned to 18. "It's been nice seeing you again. I'll be sure to come back and visit more often. Tell Krillin bye for me!"

"Sure… and tell your mother that she's welcome back anytime. It's nice to keep the old man on his toes."

"Hehe… yeah, okay."

Gohan hopped into the copter and Videl readied the plane for lift off.

"It's been nice meeting you … 18… bye!"

18 waved as the plane headed off farther into the ocean, but when she turned back towards the house, she noticed something.

"ROSHI! Why are all these plane parts lying around on MY beach?" she called out as she walked back into the house. 'Wait a second… since when does Roshi own a plane?'

* * *

By this time, Gohan and Videl were already out pretty far into the ocean.

"So Gohan… why is that woman's name 18?"

Gohan chuckled nervously. "Umm… she always said her father was an idiot…"

"Yeah… that's kind of weird."

"I guess so. Ah… crap. I just remembered. The dragon ball isn't here anymore. It was… ahh… relocated a while ago by some… storms."

"How can you even tell where this dragon ball thing is anyway? You said something about radar before… why would any one build a tracking device for some old- ahhh!" she was cut off as the plane's altitude suddenly dropped 50 feet.

"Videl. What's going on?" Gohan asked, in what Videl considered to be a voice that was way too calm to fit the situation.

"I don't know! The plane is malfunctioning or something! It won't go up anymore!" she screamed frantically, hitting random buttons as though they could make the plane stop.

An explosion rocked the plane even more as Gohan noticed something "fall" out of the trunk. He turned back to the front when he heard Videl's scream reach an all-time high note.

"What the-" he started as he turned his head. "Videl!"

Videl had been thrown out of the now non-existent door when the plane had rocked. Gohan cursed. 'Here goes nothing…' After grabbing the scuba gear and tucking Videl's cell phone safely away in his pocket, he dove out of the "window" after her.

He used his ki to speed up just enough so that he could catch up with Videl, and then began to fall at a normal rate to keep his powers concealed.

Videl, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to all of this, because she was unable to open her eyes with all the wind streaming into them. She had tried to spread her limbs to slow her fall, as she had been taught. That was a bust. It almost felt like they would be ripped off of her in mid-drop. She had almost resigned herself to a quick and hopefully painless death, when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist. Then she heard her heart leap as he whispered into her ear. "It's all going to be okay, Videl. Just trust me."

Once he had Videl, he realized he couldn't just fly away, so he did the next best thing. He shifted their position so that he was underneath her, protecting her from the brunt of the collision. Then, using his ki to slow them down ever so slightly, he tensed up and waited for the splash.

* * *

When Videl woke up, she found Gohan hovering over her, in very much the same way as she had been hovering over him earlier that day. "Hey! You're up! You've been out for a while. I was starting to get worried."

She ignored him and looked around. They appeared to be back at the Son household. "How did we get back here?" she asked, still looking around for some explanation.

Gohan pulled her cell phone out of his pocket and gave it back to her. "I used your cell to call for help."

She looked at him suspiciously. "How are we even alive? That had to be at least a couple hundred feet up."

He laughed nervously. 'Of course… I forgot. This is Videl. Any normal person would be happy that they were alive, but her…'

"Well?"

"Well you see-" he started, and sighed gratefully when Chichi came in and interrupted him. 'I owe you one Dende.'

"Gohan. Your brother and Trunks are missing. Do you have any idea where they could be?"

Gohan thought for a second, and he remembered a mysterious breeze and a certain explosion during their impromptu plane crash. He grinned evilly. 'Oh they are going to get it…' Out loud he answered, "Oh… I think I have an idea. Excuse me for a second." Leaving the two women standing there without an explanation, he ran outside and took off in the direction of Kame House.

* * *

AN: Well… this is my longest chapter so far. Quite a few words and very few events. No worries… more substance next chapter, whether or not the preview suggests it. There are still quite a few loose ends, but it'll all come together… eventually. In the meantime, Gohan has at least a few peaceful chapters left. 

Next time: What will Gohan do to the mini-demons? Can Videl claim Gohan before it's time for Lime to come back? And how will Gohan react to a threat to his ego on the anniversary of the Cell Games?

* * *


	6. Chapter 6: No Time to Rest

**Chapter 6: No Time to Rest**

As Gohan flew at top speed towards the ocean, a young boy with lavender hair was practically quivering with fear.

"Hey Trunks… what are you shaking for?" Goten asked curiously.

"Well… umm… my father taught me ki-sensing a little while ago." he answered, not looking up from the fluffy cloud they were sitting on.

"So?" The spiky haired child didn't quite know how to sense ki yet, but he couldn't figure out why Trunks' dad had taught him to do it if it was scary.

"Well… I'm pretty sure I just sensed Gohan power up, and unless I'm wrong, he should be here in…" The young boy stopped to ponder for a second. "Right now."

A chill went down both boys' spines as they turned slowly to find Gohan floating only 10 feet behind them, with an uncharacteristically creepy smirk lying on his face.

"AHHH! Nimbus! Fly awaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyy!" Goten screamed, and nimbus took off in the opposite direction, until a voice called out from behind them.

"Nimbus, Stop!"

The cloud pulled to an abrupt halt, and both demi-saiyans yelled as they flew off the cloud, towards the icy-blue water. Their descent was cut swiftly as a hand snatched each of them out of the air, dangling them by the backs of their shirts.

"Looks like you two have a lot of explaining to do." Gohan stated simply. He then started back towards the Son household.

* * *

When Gohan arrived home, he saw that Videl was already asleep on the living room floor; so after deciding that he could not come up with a fitting punishment, he took the two guilty parties to see the highest form of authority he knew of… his mother.

Upon seeing her eldest son carrying the two in like they were rag dolls, Chichi gasped in surprise. "Gohan! What are you doing?"

"Apparently mother, these two had a little something to do with our little plane crash this morning.

She studied their faces for a second. "Is that so?"

She turned to Goten. "Goten, did you and Trunks do anything that might have caused that crash?" She eyed him with a stern expression on her face.

Trunks groaned inwardly. 'Of course she asks him… I don't even know if he's capable of lying.'

Goten gulped, but didn't say anything for a while.

Chichi took this as proof of what they had done. She put her hands on her hips and glared at her son. "Okay Goten, I want to know what happened, right now."

Goten took one look at his mother's face and knew immediately that she wasn't kidding around. He closed his eyes and thought back to earlier in the day. He and Trunks had been playing in the forest when they heard Gohan and Videl talking in that yellow plane. He opened his eyes. "Well…"

_Trunks stopped behind a bush and turned around, beckoning for Goten to come to him._

"_Hey Trunks, what are you looking at?"_

"_Shhhhhh… look, it's Gohan. We should follow him and see what he's up to." They both quieted down as they heard voices coming from the clearing. _

"…_go swimming…"_

"_That's a great idea!"_

"_Hold on, I'll go get my suit."_

_Gohan hopped out of the vehicle and Trunks saw his chance. "Goten! Let's go!" he whispered fervently, before dashing out into the clearing, and diving into the back. Goten quickly followed, but he wasn't quite as stealthy as Trunks._

_Gohan stopped when he felt something whiz by him. He looked around with a bewildered expression on his face._

"_Gohan, what's wrong?" Videl called out from the copter. _

"_Umm… nothing I guess." The two boys watched as Gohan walked inside the house. _

_  
Trunks sighed. "Wow… that was close. You're lucky he didn't catch you."_

"_Yeah… so what do we do now?" Goten asked, looking at his partner in "crime". _

"_I don't know… we just wait until they get where they're going. It can't take THAT long."_

_3 hours later…_

"_Ahhhhh… Trunks! I'm bored!" Goten whined._

"_Shut up… he'll hear you. Besides, it looks like we're landing." Trunks answered, peeking out the window. When he saw Videl follow Gohan into the house, he hopped out and looked at the plane. _

"_Truuuunks! I don't want to sit in there for three hours AGAIN on the way back…" Goten whined. _

"_Hmmm… maybe we can make this heap of junk go faster." Trunks said aloud as he walked in circles around the plane, pretending to think hard. "I'm sure I could fix it up. My mom is the best scientist in the world, after all…" With this, he popped open the hatch of the plane and began to "work"._

_10 minutes later…_

"_Trunks, are you sure all those parts are supposed to be outside the plane?" Goten asked, doubtfully._

"_Shut up Goten! I know what I'm doing…" he drifted off, not sounding too confident in his own abilities. _

"_Okay…" Goten said, turning around just in time to see Gohan backing into the window. "Trunks! Gohan is coming!" _

_Trunks started sweating madly. "Go stall him! Do anything you can to keep him from seeing me without letting him see you. I'll hide the stuff." Goten nodded and ran off to go "distract" Gohan. Meanwhile, Trunks took the remaining parts and moved them off to the side of the house. "They probably won't come over here…" he said to no one, as if to reassure himself. _

_As he said this, Goten came around the house. "Hey Trunks! I did it!"_

"_Did what?" Trunks asked._

"_Well… I distracted him. I threw a rock at his head, and he fell down!" Goten said excitedly._

"_WHAT!?!?!? Are you stupid? Now he'll know someone's here for sure." Trunks replied, shaking his head. _

"_I don't think so. His eyes went all blank after I hit him… I don't think he'll be getting up for a while." Goten chirped cheerfully._

"_Oh… well that was way too close. We should just go and hide in the back of the plane again. Maybe it'll go faster this time since I pulled out the brakes. If not I guess we'll have to wait. I don't want to get caught."_

"_Okay. Let's go." _

_They then made their way to the plane, and waited for a while until Gohan and Videl came out again. _

"_Finally… I thought they were going to stay there forever."_

_"Shut up you idiot! They'll hear us."_

"_Sorry."_

_The two got into the plane and took off after saying goodbye to 18. Everything seemed to be going fine- that is, until…_

"_How can you even tell where this dragon ball thing is anyway? You said something about radar before… why would any one bother building a tracking device for some old- ahhh!!!"_

"_Trunks! Something is happening!" Goten whispered fervently._

"_I know that you moron. I think the plane is falling… I don't want to be around when it crashes. Let's go!" Trunks answered._

_With this, he blew a hole in the back of the plane and hopped out. He landed in the water a few hundred feet off to the side and felt Goten's energy off to his right somewhere. He took his time swimming over to where he felt Goten, which took considerably longer because Goten had gone off in the opposite direction while looking for him. Once he caught up to him, he called out-_

"_Hey Goten! Call your stupid cloud thing. Let's get out of here."_

"… and that's what happened." he finished in an uncharacteristically gloomy voice.

Chichi looked back and forth at the two children for a moment before speaking. "I think it's time for you two to go to bed. I'll deal with you in the morning."

The two half-saiyans quickly sped off to Goten's room, and Gohan and Chichi were left in the kitchen alone.

Turning to her oldest son, Chichi said, "Off with you too. If today was any indication, you'll need plenty of rest for tomorrow."

* * *

A little while later, as Gohan lay in his makeshift bed; his eyes fell on the girl who happened to be sleeping only a few feet away from him. Trunks and Goten had taken his room, so Videl was left out in the living room with him. 'I swear mom sets these things up on purpose.' he thought, as he chuckled to himself. Before long, his eyes began to droop, and her face slowly faded away and was replaced with an image not nearly as pleasant.

_Thunder boomed from above, breaking the silence that had befallen the immediate area. As Gohan looked around, he noticed that everything around him was completely still; and there was no wind to speak of, despite the frequent flashes of lightning and occasional rumbles from the ominously darkening sky. Suddenly, he saw Piccolo land in the clearing ahead. He watched as the green warrior scoured the wreckage of what was once a densely populated city. _

"_Goten! Trunks? Can you hear me?" he called out, only to hear his own voice echo back at him mockingly._

_Gohan just stared at him in confusion. "Piccolo, what's going on?"_

_As Gohan should have expected, Piccolo did not even seem to have heard him. "Of course… Trunks and Vegeta couldn't hear me either." _

_He went to follow his mentor, when he sensed something behind him. He jumped aside just in time as a glowing red ball of ki shot right past him. His head turned with it, and he realized the intended target had not been him. _

"_Piccolo! Watch out!" he cried helplessly, knowing that no one could hear him. _

_Gohan watched in horror as the blast flew straight at Piccolo's signature white cape, but instead of a cry of pain, he was shocked to see a figure with an oddly familiar hairstyle appear and knock the ball into the air. _

"_Father?!?"_

_Piccolo twisted his head around, looking for his attacker. "Thanks for the save, Goku. Did you see where he went?"_

"_No, it's like he has no ki signature. I can't follow his movements at all." Goku replied, closing his eyes. "But wait… I can feel Trunks. He's over that way." _

_With out a second thought, the two z-fighters took off in the direction Goku had indicated. Gohan quickly followed after them, keeping right on Goku's tail when suddenly they stopped. _

_He barely heard Goku's stifled cry of disbelief. _

_The only thing he could comprehend was the horrible scene unfolding in front of him. _

_An extremely battered Trunks had been trying to carry Goten on his back; but even as they arrived in the clearing, he dropped out of super saiyan and his knees gave out, causing both of them to fall to the ground._

_With out hesitation, Goku flew down and checked his pulse, which was non-existent. Gohan hadn't even bothered. Aside from the fact that no one could hear or feel anything he did, he had already known from the second he saw Trunks fall that both of the demi-saiyans were dead. Their cold white eyes were evidence enough of that. _

_He fought back the tears for a moment, but it was too much for him to take. Within seconds, the tears were flowing freely down the side of his face, and someone was shaking him lightly and calling his name. _

"Gohan. Gohan! Wake up, it's only a dream."

Slowly, his eyes opened, and he found himself staring at the plain white ceiling of his living room. Videl was sitting on a chair next to him, with a concerned look on her face.

"Are you okay? This is the second time I've found you having one of these crazy dreams."

He sat up and looked around. It seemed to be around mid-morning.

"I'm fine. Let's go get some breakfast."

* * *

The pair of teenagers stepped into the kitchen and began to dig into the huge stack of food Chichi had left on the table. After sitting there eating for a few minutes quietly, the slightly awkward silence was broken by the mad rush of Goten and Trunks as they raced each other to the pile of pancakes.

Gohan just watched them laughing and stuffing food in their mouths, unable to feel the same carefree happiness that they obviously did. All he could feel was the horrible empty feeling that had overtaken his lungs upon seeing his brother's cold, lifeless eyes. While he stared blankly at them, Chichi walked in and interrupted the feeding frenzy.

"So there you two are. I've been looking all over for you. I've made a decision about your punishment."

The two froze in the middle of inhaling some waffles.

"I think that it is only fair that Gohan gets to decide what your punishment should be. After all, you ruined his date with Videl."

Videl ignored the use of the word date, and asked Chichi, "Punishment for what?"

Chichi chose the words carefully in her head. "It seems that the boys thought it would be fun to tamper with your plane yesterday."

"I… see…" she said slowly, looking from one guilty face to the next. "So Gohan, what do you think we should do to these two?"

Both Goten and Trunks looked at him apprehensively, but there was no need. He didn't have it in him to punish them at all after what he had seen. "We don't need to do anything. I think they've learned their lesson."

Both mini-demons brightened up at this, but Chichi put a hand up to silence them. "Are you feeling okay, Gohan? You seemed a little too angry at them yesterday to just let them get off with nothing."

"Well, no one was hurt, and that's the important thing. They won't do it again." He stated this last part as if there was no question of whether or not he was wrong. They both nodded fervently in agreement and Chichi sighed.

"Well, I guess you two got lucky this time. I better not catch you doing anything like this ever again though." She said this only because she felt she needed to say it out loud, because she was very well aware that neither of them was even listening to her anymore.

Gohan was still a little shaken, and surprisingly, not quite up to eating. He calmly waited for Videl to finish, and indicated that they should head outside. Leaving the boys to devour the rest of the food, he stepped outside into the dazzling sunshine.

Videl followed him as he led her into the woods. They just walked quietly for a while, enjoying the slight breeze accompanied by the whispering of the trees as they headed towards some destination unknown to her. Eventually, Videl got curious and tapped Gohan on the shoulder.

"So where are you taking me?"

He smiled brightly and responded, "Well, we never did get to go swimming. I thought maybe today we could try somewhere a bit closer."

"That's a great idea, but I don't have my suit with me now."

His smile faltered for a second. "Oh yeah, I forgot. I guess we can always-" He was interrupted as a loud sports car passed over them, heading in the direction of his house.

"What the hell was that?" Videl asked, while staring off in the direction it had gone.

Gohan had an idea, but he just grabbed her arm and pulled her off towards his house. "I don't know. Let's go see."

They ran back to the house to see Lime talking to Chichi. Chichi noticed them come out of the woods and they heard her call out, "Oh, here they are now."

Lime turned around and waved. "Hey guys!"

Both of them waved back, although Videl did somewhat reluctantly.

* * *

After exchanging greetings, they all went back into the house and Lime sat down on the couch.

"So Lime, why are you back so early? I was going to pick you up tomorrow." Gohan inquired as he took his seat on the arm of the couch.

"Well, it seems that Erasa might have divulged some information about Videl's whereabouts to Mr. Satan. He found my number through the school directory and told me that he wants her back home for the parade. I guess she was smart enough not to tell him you were at Gohan's house." she finished, turning to Videl.

"Thank god for that… I guess I'd better go pack." She stood up with a sigh and turned to Gohan.

"Thanks for a great time." she told him as she leaned in to hug him. When she was close enough, she whispered into his ear, "but don't forget that you still owe me some lessons."

"Well if I do, I know you won't." he replied softly with a grin on his face.

She just shrugged and went to gather her things.

When Videl came back, she was surprised to see her two friends standing there with all of their luggage too.

"What are you guys doing?"

"We're coming back with you. Obviously." Lime answered, as she walked out the door.

Videl looked at Gohan curiously. "But you guys don't have to come back… there is still half a week of vacation left."

Gohan chuckled as he slung his arm over her shoulder and guided her towards the door. "We wouldn't want you to get bored on that long flight home! Besides… there's no way I'd miss seeing you ride in a parade. Possibly in a flowery dress?"

She hit him lightly on the shoulder. "In your dreams."

* * *

Okay… so basically I've had this for months. I never posted it because I intended to do some stuff with this chapter… but I kind of forgot what since I haven't written in so long. Hopefully I'll remember soon, but either way I should be posting a new chapter sometime within the next week. I'm kind of drifting away from my original intent with this story too, since I didn't like it that much to begin with. 


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